Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, 2nd Tuesday School Board Meeting and Public Hearing on Elementary School Attendance Zones, Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Date: Tuesday, February 14, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 7h 53m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/798808362?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-20. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] on the agenda remote participation I've been notified that Denise Corbo would like to remotely participate in tonight's school board meeting Miss Corbo please state your location if anyone is present with you at the location and whether this is a medical or personal matter thank you I am home I'm alone under policy I'm asking for remote meeting participation due to an ongoing disability and medical condition as recommended by HRTD under federal ADA disability law. At this time, I'll entertain a motion that Ms. Corbo's remote participation for

[00:00:40] medical or health reasons be granted. So moved. Moved by Mr. Beatty. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Ms. Polifko. Is there any discussion? I will reference my statement from the May 10, 2022 school board meeting for why I will not be supporting the motion. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Those opposed, please raise your hand and say nay.

[00:01:05] Nay. That motion will fail two, three, four, with Sorotkin, Mehedivi, and Sheridan opposed, and Corbo, Okedegbe, Reeser, and Morse absent for the vote. Ms. Corbo, would you like to request participation for personal reasons in the meeting tonight? Yes, I would, because there is an extremely important vote this evening and many information items that I would like to participate

[00:01:38] in. At this time, I will entertain a motion that Ms. Carbo's remote participation for a personal matter be approved tonight. If approved, this will be Ms. Carbo's second remote participation this calendar year using a personal exemption. So moved. Moved by Mr. Beatty. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Mahedvy. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please raise your hand say aye. Aye. That motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Corbo, Ogadegbe, Reeser, and Morse absent for the vote. I have also been notified that

[00:02:18] Erica Ogadegbe would like to remotely participate in tonight's school board meeting. Ms. Ogadegbe, please state your location, whether this is a medical or personal matter, and if anyone is present with you at your location. Mr. Chair Throtkin, I am in Chicago, Illinois for a funeral.

[00:02:38] or the death of the family, and so I am asking to use a personal exemption. I am alone. - Thank you. At this time, I will entertain a motion that Ms. Okadegbe's remote participation for a personal matter be approved.

[00:02:56] If approved, this will be Ms. Okadegbe's first remote participation for this calendar year. - So moved. - Moved by Ms. Sheridan, is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Mejedevi, any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please raise your hands and say aye.

[00:03:14] - Aye. - Ms. Corbo, those opposed? Ms. Corbo, were you voting for-- - I'm yes. - Yeah, thank you. That motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Okadegbe, Reeser, and Morse absent for the vote.

[00:03:33] At this time, we'll move to item two, the approval of the consent agenda. Is there a motion, Mr. Mahedby? - I move that the board approve the consent agenda for January 14, 2023. - Second.

[00:03:49] - Seconded by Ms. Sheridan. there any discussion seeing none all those in favor of the motion to approve the consent agenda please raise your hand and say aye aye that motion will pass unanimously with miss reaser absent for the vote unanimously of board members present with miss reaser absent for the vote that will bring us to item three our work session uh we have one item for the work session today which will be followed by uh as as many information items as we have time for during this work session

[00:04:25] so we'll start with 3.01 on the client management system let's talk and i'll turn it over to mr slevin and miss algren good afternoon chair sarkin board members thank you for the opportunity to provide you information regarding our client management system and the initial plan for a

[00:04:57] rollout for school board members the client management system is a metric the use of the client management system is a metric under aligned action 4.3 trust building dot trust trust building dialogue and data the goal of its use is to expand opportunities to involve community stakeholders and making key decisions and improve access to information information via enhanced transparency next slide please the use of the client management system also aligns to our

[00:05:35] core values and particularly trust through listening making sure that all students staff and community members have regular opportunities to be heard and a two-way conversation within and across the school division. Being new to my acting position as chief of staff, I asked for a review of how we got here.

[00:05:56] And so thinking that I may need a review, I also wanted to provide the board a refresher on how we got to this point of using Let's Talk as our client management system in LCPS. As many of you may recall, the process of helping the school board manage constituent emails started just prior to the pandemic with a presentation from the Department of digital invitation innovation from there a general request for information was issued in an intra-measure of a form on the website was implemented in 2021 the communications and community engagement staff brought the item back to the communications and outreach committee to gather requirements the Salgrin is

[00:06:33] going to be talking a little bit about the requirements in a in a future slide during that year the school board web pages form and telephone access were updated based on the requirements gathered and subsequent committee direction the RFQ was issued and reviewed in February of 2022 the school board voted to fund the client management system since that time our comment and complaint interface has been redesigned and updated using Let's Talk and the school board's interface has been designed following the school board meeting following school board training which we'll be talking about a little bit later in school board aid training we anticipate a March 1st go live date for the school board

[00:07:13] modules within Let's Talk. On this slide we see the eight requirements that were gathered from the Communications and Outreach Committee in the spring of 2021. They were used to inform the RFQ process. The final requirement, the ninth one, was to develop a comment and complaint process that supports policy 8070 replacing the manual one that was in place at the time. Next slide. So what is

[00:07:47] Let's Talk? The constituent relationship management system selected is a product from K-12 Insights and it's called Let's Talk. It's a customer experience platform that enhances and streamlines two-way communication. It is built with the needs of education divisions in mind. It is simple to use for the public and the internal stakeholders, making community engagement with the school board and the division even easier. Next slide. We thought we would give you a look at what the product looks like. Users are taken to a school board landing page that is designed

[00:08:24] with resources, meeting information, and contact buttons. This design allows for easy editing should topics or issues need to be featured on the webpage on behalf of the school board. Each school board member also has a contact form accessible from their page. I believe this is supposed to scroll to give you a preview, but it doesn't look like the feature is working on our screen. So we can show that to you at another time or transmit that to you. Next slide. And for each school board member's page this is what they might see when a user can also a user can also click

[00:09:03] contact me from your bio page rather than from the landing page so they have two opportunities to navigate to the school board member the contact form here offers the user a chance to fill in their name city address offer a comment question suggestion complaint or even compliment it's both visually appealing and easy to use again the page has been designed and should be scrolling here but we can show that to you at another time you can even use your let's talk interface when you prepare your newsletter school board members may include their link to their dedicated contact form in their newsletter so that

[00:09:40] constituents may access them easily they can submit their comment suggestion or other directly through this format now I'll turn it back to Neil who will address another benefit of the system thank you in addition let's talk includes a dashboard that could give an overall health check-in on how your district or particular team is doing when it comes to hot topics or just ongoing communication with our school system our parents our families people that we want to interact with system and admin global users global global users will be

[00:10:17] able to see an overview of the whole district team owners and members will only see the data for their particular topic you'd be able to filter dialogues using particular keywords view charts and graphs and you'll also be able to download and save information in different formats if you go to the next slide you'll see another example of the interface as an example next slide please following this information item we had originally considered scheduling a training during the work session but we opted to provide training opportunities

[00:10:51] for board members on these particular dates we are we would like to have board members select one of the training opportunities are available and we'll schedule those with two school board members and then two aids for training this will be online we try we have tried to provide different options knowing that your schedules will need to be accommodated and at that time you'll be able to take a deeper dive into the platform to learn how this can help you in your role as school board members we would ask that you respond to the email that you'll receive from this burn by February 17th and if at the end of the day none of these dates works we'll work with individual board members to try to

[00:11:31] get you a training to meet your needs so at this time we are happy to take questions or comments board members questions regarding the presentation or on the let's talk system mr. Madby thank you chair I think the one question I got from some board members that is it is it all I guess everybody has to use it or we can have it depending upon some board members want to use it or not use it or

[00:12:07] is it you know sorry that's the question so is it everyone has to use it or they can be depending upon um if someone to use it some doesn't want to use it you still have the flexibility in that so staff's understanding as is that this was a board initiated initiative something that the board voted to fund and pursue um so our assumption is that this would be used

[00:12:39] across the board and we would support school member school board members as such additional questions Thank you. I think I was behind you. Thank you. I might have missed it, but is there a time loaded for review of training purposes?

[00:13:12] Yes. In the slide deck and in the email that you'll receive following this presentation, you'll have an option of six times to choose from, scheduled at different points of the day. Hopefully one of those six will work for your schedule, but if not, we'll find a way to accommodate your needs as a board member.

[00:13:29] Additional questions? Seeing none, thank you very much for the overview, and board members, please contact Ms. Algren and her team to schedule a training session for you and your assistant.

[00:13:48] With that, we'll move to, we'll start on our information items. We'll start with 4.01 from the Department of Business and Financial Services, FY23, second quarter financial review and COVID funds update. Thank you, and I have a few slides to provide.

[00:14:09] this is as you just mentioned the second quarter financial review we are halfway through the fiscal year so this review will include actual activity for half the year representing July 1 through December 31st and then projected activity for the second half of the fiscal year the full report is available in board docs however I'm just going to present some highlights similar to what I did during the first quarter financial review next slide please so with the school operating fund we'll start there first regarding revenue last quarter we

[00:14:45] saw sales tax coming in higher than what we had budgeted with 6.6 million additional coming in and that has picked up another 1 million dollars basic aid continues to be 2.9 million less due to the approximately 800 less students that we have compared to what we had budgeted for the basic age shortfall from the video error is not included in this projection due to timing and we also continue to hear optimistic reports that the General Assembly will remedy this as they work through the budget amendments moving on to personnel and expenses we continue to review and work with departments we have

[00:15:23] projected savings being less than what we had originally projected from the first quarter and this is due to continued patterns of higher overtime usage subs and also part-time usage and we're working with departments with that regarding operations and maintenance inflation continues to impact these costs however the utilities projection has been improved with 1 million dollars less than expected compared to the first projection and this is due to the mild winter we've been experiencing this projection also does not have the latest school board motion related to the 2.4 million of year-end funds also due to

[00:16:03] timing of the preparation of this projection currently the year-end appropriated unspent fund balance is projected to be fourteen point eight million dollars after deducting the 12 million carryover for fiscal 24 if the state does not remedy to three and a half million basic aid revenue shortfall and if we also include that along with the 2.4 million year-end usage that would bring the year-end balance down to eight point nine million dollars so our target return to the county has been to return no more than one percent of the

[00:16:40] budget and this 8.9 would result in a percentage of 0.5 percent or five-tenths of 1 percent of the budget. The school nutrition fund the second quarter provides us with more data to refine our projections. The first quarter was only July through September so we only had about one and a half months of actual school data to work with. Now that we have October through December we can update our revenue and expenditure projections. We are seeing the impact of supply chain issues with our cafeteria sales revenue. While we have increased meal participation rates, our a la

[00:17:15] carte sales are impacted due to popular items not being available for us to obtain and also sell. So we lose out on the net profit from some of those popular items. Inflation continues to be a concern as well, and we are fortunate to have assistance funding allocated to LCPS from VDOE. I think we're on our third round of supply chain assistance funding. There are two recent allocations from VDOE that are working its way through the school board approval process that is not included in this projection finally with our self-insurance funds the update here is mixed we are seeing improvement in

[00:17:55] our projection for health and short-term disability claims but our workers comp claims are increasing due to actual claims activity and the actual cost of injuries including physical therapy and treatments being more costly so all in all our funds continue to be healthy and we continue to meet our policy and regulation requirements regarding managing these funds. The next section is another update regarding our COVID funds. So the last update was we had 24 awards. We still have 24 awards however there's one more

[00:18:31] that we've just recently received that is not reflected in here so we're actually up to 25 awards. We have fully spent 13. The last time I presented this during the first quarter review we had only fully spent 11 so we've closed out two additional awards the next several slides I'm not going to go through but I'll ask if we can move to slide six that has the additional two COVID awards that we have closed out the one million of the cares gear and ESSER funding has been closed out as well as the second allocation of supply chain funding that's in

[00:19:07] school nutrition fund these slides i'll also mention are all available on our website regarding you know just transparency into our covet awards the next set of slides showcase our active awards and so these are the remaining awards that we still have we continue we are still on target to fully expend all these awards by the end of this fiscal year with the exception of the award related to the hvac systems that's a that has that spans multiple fiscal years and it's in the cip fund

[00:19:43] and with that that concludes my brief update with the second quarter financial review this again is an information only there's no action required and that i'll be back in april with the third quarter financial review thank you miss willoughby board members questions regarding the presentation i have one uh the when we adopted our fy 24 budget there was part of that motion that was allocating i think around two and a half million of unspent fy 23 funds so the 14.8 million of

[00:20:22] appropriated unspent fund balance is that inclusive or exclusive of that two and a half million it does not include that at this time so if we deduct that then that would bring it down a little bit And then, again, also if we also deduct if the state doesn't remedy the $3.5 million funding error that they had, then that would bring that $14 million down to, what did I have, $8.9 million.

[00:20:49] Okay, thank you. So I'm glad we have that buffer depending on what's going to happen at the state level. Additional questions? Mr. Madby. Thank you, Chair. So, Ms. Willoughby, maybe this is something that's been shared.

[00:21:05] But, like, for example, if I look at the active awards, and it's the ESSER3ARP, $10. 9 million, that's currently active, and has number of planned usage, do we have, do we keep track, I mean, I'm sure we do keep track of an itemized list of where that, which sort of buckets plan, how much are we spending?

[00:21:30] is something we can we get the copy or some can we get some requests to let me put this one can i request to see if we can get some more uh details on that whenever the you and your staff can provide us that we could provide numbers related to how much we spent for the 2021 summer school how much we spent for the 2022 summer school as well as the projection for the little for the different buckets yeah um we don't have like a quick easy report it is something we'd have have to pull together but we could pull that together additional questions mr.

[00:22:09] baby thank you I just want a second mr. Mahedby's if you need another board members for that motion correction additional questions okay that will conclude 4.01 and we'll move to 4.02 from the Finance and Operations Committee budget transfer request mr. Morris thank you mr. chair at the last finance and operations committee meeting the board approved and recommended to forward to the school board for the information item tonight the renaming or the actual

[00:22:49] naming of the Lovitzville elementary school field baseball field for coach Larry winner senior who was a mainstay in the community for the last 30 years the naming of course based on our policy restricts us to a 10-year period but But the community, with the support of the principal, Ms. Textoros, greatly supported Mr. Morris?

[00:23:20] Yes. We're on 4.02, which is a budget transfer request. I think you're talking about 4.03. Oh, I'm on 4.03. I'm sorry. I'm eager to move on to that. But I'll move back to 4.02. This came out of Finance and Operations Committee as well. This was a request to move $307,000 internally from Central Support Office and the superintendents and there's movement within actually it's an intra departmental transfer to maintain those funds and to move them to additional areas within the the same

[00:23:56] department staff was kind enough to provide the highlight of of the transfer to us and that's included as the enclosure and you can see where the the funding debited out of the superintendent's office and credited to the several other areas credited safety and security specifically and you can see the ultimate breakdown of both the debit and the credit is there anything additional that we need to that you'd like to add this will be okay typically any transfers that are inter departmental transfers over $250,000

[00:24:32] require school board approval or notification any intra departmental over $100,000 require the same so that is why this is being brought forward as an information item this evening. Thank you, Mr. Morse. Board members, any questions regarding the budget transfer request? Mr. Beatty. Thank you. One thing that comes up with these special transfers is how it affects the base budget. So does staff have any guidance on how this is going to affect the base budget going forward, especially if we've got legal fees, software updates,

[00:25:10] things that we didn't anticipate. Will that be rolled into future budgets that will come up, or like especially the one we just approved? When we developed the FY24 budget, we did review the items that we had here regarding overages as well as what we had surpluses and made appropriate adjustments to F by 24 if that was necessary. Thank you. Additional questions? Board members interest in placing this on consent for our next board meeting? Okay it looks like we will place

[00:25:48] that on consent for our next board meeting. And with that we'll move to 4.03 also from the Finance and Operations Committee. Request to name the Lovitzville Elementary School baseball field the coach Larry Wenner senior memorial field mr. Morris so in summary I I did want to thank the community for reaching out to us for this or to to name the the baseball field because it is a significant contribution in recognition of years of service to the community so again this this came through finance and operations supported by the principal and staff and I believe we had over 600

[00:26:27] signatures on a petition as well we're supporting the naming of the field questions regarding the potential renaming of the baseball field seeing none interest in placing this on consent during our next board meeting that will be a no so we will place this on action mr morse yes uh the reason why i did not want to place on consent is i would like the family present uh when we do eventually approve this presupposing

[00:27:00] we will thank you excellent thank you so that'll conclude 4.03 we'll move to 4.04 from the joint committee the 2023 work plan so the joint committee unanimously recommended six items for the 2023 work plan of the joint committee the first item being an information item on the sro memorandum of understanding the second item being an information item on the lcps pickleball courts

[00:27:39] and an update on how they're being resurfaced throughout the county. The third item being an information item on student bus passes and the update on the MOU between the county and LCPS on that initiative. Fourth being an information item on student activity fees and an update on the school board's study of student fees and plans to eliminate any remaining fees.

[00:28:05] The fifth being an action item on the joint committee's rules of order admission to review those and take action if necessary and the sixth being related in an action item related to the safe pedestrian passage to schools which we we received an information information item during our last board meeting this would be an action item to prioritize potential crosswalk locations for planning and implementation purposes so this would be absent any other board direction this would be brought back during the next board meeting to vote on approving the 2023 work plan for the joint committee which also will have

[00:28:45] to be approved by the board of supervisors board members any questions or discussion regarding the work plan miss polipko thank you mr chair just one brief question about the mou wondered if at this point has the sheriff's office been contacted for their available participation in that meeting in april and if not when will that happen i don't think they've been notified yet because the joint Committee only meets once every two months so it's our next meeting is in

[00:29:19] April and given that it'll be hosted at the Leesburg Government Center I think it'll be incumbent on the Board of Supervisors to invite them but I would anticipate that they would be invited to take part in that discussion but I'll ask mr. Lewis if he has anything to add on that topic thank you mr. Soraka and after the meeting the other night I did reach out to county staff to make sure that they were aware that they not only the sheriff's department but Leesburg police who's also a signature on the document would be invited to the meeting any additional questions mr. matter be thank you chair so mr. Lewis I think I

[00:29:58] asked this question in the past but I think the item number two that we have I think where we the board directed was earlier on three schools so when I see LCPS and PRCS what's where are we with or you know in terms of I know the direction was only for three schools but you know again is that we doing across all schools and that's the update we plan to give yes sir so the the three schools that we started with are either in process or finished I'm not sure the exact status today but the discussion we had too with the board was that we

[00:30:36] would continue to add two courts to each of the six courts at each of the high schools as we replace the finish on the feet on this surfaces so each year in the cap when the resurfacing comes up then we would add that striping for two of those courts to have the pickleball courts I don't believe at least from my point of view I don't believe the direction was I'll go back and look at the meeting minutes and probably go back look at the video and and kind of bring it back because I think from my understanding where we agreed was those two courts for those three high schools and that was it so I just want to again

[00:31:14] board members I'd like to go back and look at it and if that's the this the state I think I'd like to bring it back some sort of discussion back to the board before we just kind of go along with this you know across every every school so thank you additional questions for discussion so my recollection on that topic is that we weren't going to do any extra work and do any out of cycle resurfacing to put the pickleball fields in but that as schools came up for their regularly scheduled resurfacing that we would include some of the

[00:31:50] pickleball lining on some of the fields during that time although I don't think we I don't think we gave formal direction but I do remember having that discussion that we would at least consider it when the when all of the other high schools came up for resurfacing thank you chair everything I think you know I'll reiterate that I think we as a division our director of sports everyone that I've spoken to do not believe that it causes a lot of confusion for the tennis team and in many capacities and I think I don't think

[00:32:28] it's still a good idea that we need to go and permanently convert every high school tennis courts to a pickleball court they can certainly put a tape on it and they can still play that's not I'm not against that but just going in painting permanent lines I think it's it's still you know again it's everybody in from a school athletic directors everybody's advice against it and so I'll stand in support of that that we don't need that so at some point chair maybe we can bring back as a item to discuss it and can sort of go through that how

[00:33:02] we decide I'm going forward with it thank you any any additional questions or discussion seeing on any interest in placing the work plan on consent for our next board meeting that'll be a no so we will place it on action for the February 28th meeting with that we'll move to 4.05 from the specialized

[00:33:27] Programs and Centers Committee on the practical nursing update. Dr. Ellis. Thank you, Mr. Sorotkin.

[00:33:44] This afternoon, I am joined by Ray Mitchell, Chief of Schools, who has been working closely with the Adult Education Supervisor and the Virginia Board of Nursing on this topic that we'll share with you this evening. I've provided some regular written updates on this topic to you and shared the presentation with the Special Programs Committee at their meeting last month. This evening we'll provide you some history of the practical nursing program the challenges that we've faced and how we got to the point of recommending to the SPC committee that the board consider pausing or ending the adult education practical nursing program I do want to say from the start that this is not an

[00:34:23] easy decision and not one that we've taken lightly making the recommendation to the committee and ultimately to the board so we appreciate your time this evening so we'll start with a little bit of the background on june 11 1974 the school board approved the addition of a practical nursing program in lcps we can go to the next slide the program was originally for high school students and postgraduate students and adults and it was housed at the monroe technology center and then at the academies of loudon when that

[00:35:01] building was opened in the fall of 2021 the practical nursing program became an adult education program housed at the North Star School when that facility opened this change was made after much discussion with the school board starting with the Academies of Loudon ad hoc committee when that committee was in existence conversations for shifting the program to an adult education program focused on the small number of students who enrolled each year the attrition rate from practical nursing one to the second year of the program adult students and high school students being enrolled in the same courses and

[00:35:37] the desire of the board and staff to maximize seats at the academies of Loudoun where there was a maximum 20 student a 20 student maximum for the practical nursing program and that maximum was not met at that same time in the fall of 2021 LCPS began offering a nurse aide pathway for high school juniors and seniors at the Academy of Loudoun in the Monroe advanced technical technical Academy or the MATA program upon successful completion of the nurse aid program students take the national nurse aid assessment program exam to become a certified nurse aide I want to be clear that we are not talking about

[00:36:15] that program at the academies of Loudoun this evening we're only talking about the adult education practical nursing program at the North Star School but I did want to note that the nurse aide program did open up more more opportunities for LCPS students at the academies of Loudoun which was the ultimate goal of making that shift the program is currently as I mentioned offered to adults only we can go to the next slide some of the students enrolled in the practical nursing program are our LCPS graduates they have included LCPS

[00:36:51] graduates for the past four years so for 2019 2020 2021 and 2022 LCPS has not met the required 80% pass rate on the National Council licensure exam or the NCLEX exam so in order for nursing program in the state of Virginia to keep running as a practical nursing program certified by the Virginia Board of Nursing, the program must maintain an 80% pass rate on the NCLEX exam. We have had conditional approval

[00:37:23] for the time that we have not met that 80% pass rate. In May of 2021, the Virginia Board of Nursing conducted a site visit and the program remains conditionally approved until the NCLEX pass rate has been reviewed and improved.

[00:37:42] In just a moment, I'm going to share with you some enrollment history and test history and show you some of the challenges that we've had. So if you go to the next slide, you'll see enrollment history for several years.

[00:38:01] The past two years have been at the North Star School. Three years before that was in the Academies of Loudoun in the MATA program and prior to that at the Monroe Technology Center. As you can see, enrollment is historically low.

[00:38:17] I'll also point out that attrition from Practical Nursing 1 into Practical Nursing 2 isn't always as great as we would like it to be. So students, particularly when it was available to high school seniors, they, for various reasons, did not complete the program when they were post-graduates.

[00:38:35] Many went on to college for a four-year program, interested in medicine in other ways besides Practical Nursing. For a variety of reasons, students did not continue the program. If you go to the next slide, you'll see the NCLEX pass rates and the number of first-time test takers.

[00:38:57] So as I mentioned earlier, a practical nursing program must maintain an 80% pass rate on the NCLEX exam. The small numbers of students taking the test each year obviously impacts that pass rate significantly. An additional challenge is that a student does not have to take the NCLEX exam in the year that they complete the program.

[00:39:18] So, literally, a student who participated in the Loudoun Practical Nursing Program 20 years ago, this is a real example, could sign up to take the NCLEX exam this year.

[00:39:36] If they fail the NCLEX exam, their enrollment in that test is tied to the Loudoun Practical Nursing Program and counts as one of our first-time test takers. So, for example, if a student were to take it this year, having taken the program with Loudoun 20 years ago and failed the exam, we would then have a 0% pass rate unless there are other students who are first-time test takers who also take the exam.

[00:40:05] So, that is an additional challenge that we are facing, and Ms. Mitchell explains it best. Think about Loudoun as having a school code, just like you would use a school code to sign up for the SAT. if you complete the program with loud and you have that school code and that school code lasts as long as the program is in existence so that's an added challenge and these numbers are just as a reference you can see again even and for those of you who like all the numbers to match up like I do there are a variety of reasons why a student completes the PN2 program and would not

[00:40:43] necessarily take the exam perhaps they don't feel prepared for perhaps they have decided that practical nursing is not for them perhaps they decide to go on to a four-year college and then medical school there are many many options or reasons why a student wouldn't take the exam or decide many years later to cut to come back and take the exam so with that background information we're going to shift to the next slide and I'm going to turn it over to miss Mitchell who will take us to the present and talk us through the last

[00:41:15] year and our current status thank you dr. Ellis next slide please so on September 20th 2022 the Virginia Board of Nursing sent notification to the adult ed program outlining the conditional approval and what must be met in order to move beyond that so part of it is contingent upon the 2023 and 2024 passage rates to meet or exceed 80% and dr. Ellis just gave an example of how that could be challenging because it depends upon when a student graduated and when

[00:41:53] they take the test. Another part is submission of a comprehensive plan regarding the transition from including students that may have finished the academies of Loudoun and now moving to an adult-only nursing program. We also have to submit a quarterly report that is due on the first Monday of january april july and october and that should be of 2023 not 2024. the report was submitted for january we received feedback and that has been updated and sent back to the nursing board we

[00:42:33] also needed to provide a copy of the order to all current and prospective students faculty members and advisory board and the order is to be published on the website and that order is to notify all stakeholders of the conditional approval rate. Next slide please. So we have currently listed the conditional approval on all publications that has been complying with that September order. We also have to comply with the board's regulations for maintaining an approved practical nursing program. Part

[00:43:12] of that is staffing. So currently the adult program is staffed with 3.5 FTEs to date, we have 1.5. Part of that is a required program coordinator and or director. An update to that position, it is mandated to have the practical nursing program. One candidate applied. That candidate was interviewed and offered the position and then declined. And as of today, when I checked, we have one applicant and the adult ed supervisor will review that resume for qualifications and

[00:43:52] see if they are interested if they do meet the qualifications because we are currently hiring staff or end-of-year status next slide please so now that you have the history and the current status we are going to talk about next steps and moving forward next slide please on October 31st of last year a memo was drafted for the school board to note the required documentation and steps taken to address the conditional approval order for the practical nursing program

[00:44:24] And this memo outlined the purpose of the plan to include existing conditions, goals and objectives, and next steps. This same information was sent to the Virginia Department of Health Professions on November 15, 2022. And just to clarify, the Virginia Department of Health Professions also includes members of the Virginia Nursing Board, and they are the ones that conduct the site visit and who we are responsible for turning information into.

[00:44:52] Next slide, please. This past December, a representative from the Virginia Board of Nursing conducted a site visit. There were 12 regulations that were reviewed, and 10 of those 12 either partially or fully were not verified due to missing and or complete documentation and evidence.

[00:45:15] Evidence of compliance must be submitted within 90 days of the letter that we received from that site visit. So we have until April 9th of 2023 to bring the program into compliance. Just to note of why some of that information may have been missing from the regulations, it is because that is the full responsibility of a program director for practical nursing, which we do not have.

[00:45:44] That is not the supervisor of adult ed. The program director would be a licensed nurse that is certified to lead the program. So, that person would be the one responsible for ensuring that we have met the regulations. So, that is a huge part of why those regulations were not met.

[00:46:04] Next slide, please. So, as I mentioned previously, for the quarterly reports we have to turn in, one was for the first Monday of January, and that was turned in on the 13th, and we received feedback from that.

[00:46:20] And three categories with 12 subcategories are related to clinical hours and experiences. Again, that would be the responsibility of the program director to ensure that students have clinical hours and experiences.

[00:46:36] So without the program director, we are having difficulty to ensure those clinical requirements are met. Updates regarding what support is provided to students to help pass the NCLEX was not completed. That information has been completed and turned in, as well as an update on the hiring staff.

[00:46:55] Next slide, please. So some of what Dr. Ellis mentioned are our current challenges. We have a lack of applicants for both instructional positions and the program coordinator, which means that we are having difficulty in fulfilling the requirements to bring the program into compliance because the main responsibility to do so would be that of the program coordinator.

[00:47:21] We also have low enrollment, which impacts the NCLEX pass rate, and students that were placed on probation due to low test scores and not meeting the requirements have been dismissed from the program. So while we started with 17 students total, as of today, we are down to 13.

[00:47:42] Next slide, please. So when speaking with the person from the Virginia Health Professions or Board of Nursing that conducted the site visit, we have three options. We can continue the program If we decide to do so, we have until that April 9th date to bring it into full compliance.

[00:48:03] We can pause the program and support the first-year students, which that number has now shifted from 9 to 7. We can support those students in finding another program and refund their tuition and support the remaining second-year students, which has been brought from 8 to 7 students.

[00:48:21] We can support them with the appropriate instructional staff that we have. Or we can end the program, which is close it for all 17 students at the end of this year. And if the program were to ever be implemented again, we would start over from ground zero.

[00:48:38] The main difference between pausing and ending is if we pause the program and we pick it up in another two years, for example, the conditional approval stays with us. That program code that Dr. Ellis stated stays with us.

[00:48:53] So the history of scores stays with us. If we end the program and decide we want to start again in two years, we start from ground zero with a clean slate. Regardless of the option, we must, it is mandated that we have a program director, and we do not have that.

[00:49:13] So during the SPC committee, we propose an option to end the program because we do not have the appropriate staff and a program director that could help us bring it into compliance.

[00:49:29] Next slide, please. So as an update and a summary of things that Dr. Ellis and I have mentioned, we have until April 9th of this year to meet the requirements. In speaking with the supervisor of adult education today, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to do that without a program director.

[00:49:49] We currently have 1.5 of 3.5 FTEs. The .5 person that was just hired was hired with an end-of-year contract. And again, without a program director or coordinator by that April date to help us bring the program into compliance, we will not be able to meet the order that has been placed before us.

[00:50:13] So due to the unforeseen immediate future of the program, it was not advertised for the 2023-24 school year. So given this, we are currently working with the current enrolled students, and at the end of this school year, we are recommending to sunset the program, to end it and not pause it, because we do not have a program coordinator.

[00:50:39] If we decide to move forward with this, the person that has been supporting us from the Virginia Board of Nursing will help us close out the program appropriately and make sure that we have steps in place should we want to start the program again at a later date.

[00:50:56] this concludes our presentation and then I'll just add one more thing that I did mention it the SPC committee that I would like to reiterate here I I do believe that staff has has done everything within our power to to keep this program going and we truly we truly do believe that it is best at this point to support the students currently in the program in finding a another existing program if that's what they choose to do and to sunset this program and again as I mentioned at the beginning this is not a decision we take

[00:51:36] lightly it's not one that miss Mitchell and I like at all and I think the SPC committee felt the same way but ultimately they they did agree with us and recommend that we bring this conversation to the full board so with that I'll turn it back to you mr. Sorokin thank you for the presentation and recommendation so I will open it up for board member questions or discussion starting with Ms. Sheridan.

[00:52:01] Thank you Mr. Chair and thank you both for bringing the presentation here after we asked you to do that in the SBC meeting I just wanted to reiterate that after hearing all the information that the committee did vote three zero to support the staff recommendation to end the program and we do we do we did that night and we continue to recognize all of the work and effort that was put forth to sustain it and I think one of the things that was really important to reiterate is that if we end it now but we restart it again the the people who come back and test will have a fresh start the whole program has a fresh start and I think that that's

[00:52:39] really important too so I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that the committee did support the recommendation additional questions mr. Mahedepi thank you chair so it's a dr. Ellis and I guess I'm trying to think about students and I understand that what been presented tonight and the recommendation so out of the 17 using 13 students are what's left in the program at the moment so let's say they can't find a pro I mean I guess I'm just finding concerning that they would have gone through this six months nine months

[00:53:19] if they're the first year program and now the program is cancelled and they're gonna start over like all over again does that put them back a year because now they haven't really completed the program and so what I don't know why has a program but it's not a lot of County I think it's in Springfield I believe so what can they do to transition or do we even have an option to complete I guess maybe not because you don't have a program director and the appropriate staff so you can't even complete this year so that you can have a sort of a good you know stop or pause whatever you want to call it and then versus just

[00:53:57] stop it at the moment so I don't know if you can speak to that thank you for that question so we are working to and I'll start and ask miss Mitchell to fill in or correct me if i'm wrong we are working to ensure that the students currently enrolled will get credit for this year or get a refund if they prefer because because they are adult students they do pay a small tuition it is very small compared to other tuition nursing programs around so so we are working hard to make sure they do get that credit and as miss mitchell mentioned we would work with the coordinator at the state level to help place those students in other programs

[00:54:37] We have even heard as recently as the past couple of weeks that there may be a new program opening at Northern Virginia Community College, and we would be able to support those students in transitioning to that program if they so desire. And I do want to reiterate that even if the board does decide to continue conditionally, we may not have a choice in that matter when we get to April.

[00:55:03] It may end whether we want it to or not. Thank you. Additional questions. Ms. Corbo, followed by Ms. Okedekpe. Thank you.

[00:55:19] I did meet with Dr. Ellis about this program. I am never in support of preventing students from any type of program that is career-ready and offers opportunities to our students, especially for certification.

[00:55:42] After the past, the last few years, I know that Dr. Ellis has provided updates regarding the LPN nursing program, a program that I know well.

[00:55:50] My daughter participated in the program her sophomore year, or started on that health and medical track her sophomore year, and her along with nine of her friends that participated in that program have gone on to working directly in the field of nursing as CNAs, LPNs, and most are seeking advanced degrees as RNs, physician assistants, mental health clinicians, and also seeking PhDs in neuroscience.

[00:56:22] And this is just one representation of our cohort that started in Loudoun County. Knowing that our nation is in desperate need of nurses and all areas of the medical field, I just don't understand how Loudoun County Public Schools is considering closing down a program of this magnitude and this opportunity.

[00:56:43] We can say that there's low enrollment, which there seems to be, but not consistently. And I don't understand how surrounding schools and school divisions like this, William County, and I had a phone call with her, and they said that their programs are well-supported by administration and are thriving.

[00:57:12] So then I spoke to former employees, Loudoun County employees, to get their feedback. And one of the things that they mentioned is it's just not supported by our administration. It's not promoted. And I won't go into the details. However, I can't help but conclude that we're not doing something right.

[00:57:29] I know we have bright students who have dreamt of a career in the health and medical field. They don't even know that the program exists. These students may not have college funds or the ability to take a personal loan for Nova's program or a college program.

[00:57:45] And this program makes all the difference if they only knew. I also understand that there's challenges in hiring a director for the program because we're not offering director pay was one of the things that was mentioned. If we need to change that, then why hasn't pay come before us for this one employee, for this specialized program to continue?

[00:58:07] Rather than closing a program, why is leadership at LCTS not looking at our neighbors, finding out what they've done, finding out how we can make our program better and become a leader in this area, rather than closing it down and shutting it down? I just believe that our students deserve every opportunity, and our administration should be investing in programs that truly benefit our students through recruitment, collaboration, and marketing opportunities for our students.

[00:58:36] And what I'm hearing in this presentation is that what we have done proactively to support the program, it seems like it's what we need to do to discontinue the program, which is a totally different direction. And again, you know, with my education experience, a former technical educator, I started a program that was failing.

[00:59:02] I was hired, and I more than doubled our program participation. Our enrollment doubled. We brought home district, state, and national awards to our program. It's a matter of believing in the program, getting the right people, so that way our students can have opportunities.

[00:59:23] And that's what I'm missing in this presentation. It is something that I do not support. I don't think that this program should be sunset. In fact, I think we should be investing in this, figuring out what we need to do to make it one of the best. Thank you. Ms. Okadekbe.

[00:59:42] Thank you. I will say it's also disappointing just to hear that the program hasn't been thriving the way it looks like in the past.

[01:00:00] At a very high level, we had students who were going and doing well. I had a couple of questions. one example is that if we decided to continue to move forward, there's an impact to LCCS's ability to offer the program again in the future if we don't meet the requirements by April 9th when we are full of the program at that time.

[01:00:33] And I have, and I'm also assuming if that came in, those students don't have the opportunity it's a little hard to hear so I'll do my best to answer the first part of the question and to be honest I didn't understand the second part at all so I think the first part of your question was about the time between now and the

[01:01:13] April deadline to become to be in compliance if if we do not have a program director in place by then we will not we will still not be in compliance and the program will be closed for us that will not impact our ability to have a program in the future it will however mean that the program has ended rather than paused so we would to use I don't even know if the school code is the correct term but it's understandable. We would get a new code in the year that we decide to reopen the program and

[01:01:50] then ending the program in April, while unfortunate, would not have an impact on future plans. I think that was your first question and I don't know if anyone else caught the second part or if you want to repeat the second half of your question. Ms. Ogadegbe, I think you were cutting out pretty bad.

[01:02:08] I think you'll have to repeat the second half of your question if you don't mind. Okay, I'll try Again, I don't know if somebody had a microphone on in the room, but the second question is, with an abrupt stop in April, if we didn't meet those criteria, what is the impact to the students who are currently enrolled in that case?

[01:02:25] So what we would do is support those students to transition just like we would with the first year students to transition out. And it's possible that for those second year students, they would be a lot closer to finishing the program because they've already experienced their clinical hours and their experiences.

[01:02:49] So we could potentially, we would be in a better position to help them. But just like with all students, we would help them transition. And for the second-year students, they have received credit for their first year. So when they transfer to another program, they are not starting over.

[01:03:06] They're getting credit for the courses that they have taken. And we have very few students that are in that second-year program that are LCPS graduates. Our first year, they're all adults. So moving forward, if we were to continue into the next school year, there would not be any LCPS students per se.

[01:03:25] They might be graduates, but it would be transitioning to an adult-only program. And just to add on to that, I do want to reemphasize that we are talking about adult students right now. This is not in any way any of our grades 9 through 12 students.

[01:03:42] These are all graduates of high school, either from LCPS or from other programs. So we're not talking about the MATA program, only the adult education program. No, I'll just follow up on that. I did understand that.

[01:03:57] I just, as of, you know, they are still our students, even though they're adult students. And it would, again, it's unfortunate. And I will just echo some of the thoughts that Ms. Corvo shared about the desire to offer multiple pathways in technical education that, in this case, they are adult learners, but it's a great pathway to careers that are important for the community as well.

[01:04:28] Additional questions. Ms. Polifco. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ms. Corbo, I do want to thank you for your comments earlier. I can absolutely see the passion that you have for our students, no matter how young or old they are.

[01:04:45] And one thing that concerned me when I was listening to this presentation, and while I certainly do understand that if we do not have a program coordinator, we cannot move forward, I certainly understand the logistics of that. But something that we didn't discuss and that I don't know anything about personally is why it is that we are not in current possession of a program coordinator and why it has been so difficult to fulfill that position.

[01:05:13] And the only thing I can think of off the top of my head is that perhaps the pay is not competitive enough, and I didn't know if you had any information to provide us regarding that matter. But if not, and if you don't today, I think that that's something that we have to consider as a board moving forward with programs like this because it's possible that there's just not enough motivation for someone to come in and try and snatch up that position if the pay is not competitive enough.

[01:05:39] And while obviously we're here for our kids, we can't be here for our kids if we don't have the people in place to support their instruction. So I would like to learn a little bit more about that if possible. Thank you. So, yes, Ms. Palico, that is what we are assuming to be one of the greatest factors is because when the program transitioned from academies to the adult ed, that program director coordinator is actually a teacher position, so it's teacher pay.

[01:06:12] However, one of the requirements is that a person have a degree in nursing. So that is what we are assuming is contributing to the low interest in it. And we did have one recommendation from the person that is supporting us from the state, and we reached out, but that person was not interested because they were coming from another program that had closed, and the state was aware that they met the certification.

[01:06:39] So because this started this school year and adult ed is under LCPS, we are not able to redo the pay structure by April 9th. However, should we start the program again with that clean slate, we could look at that position as being something and pay it accordingly as a true coordinator and or director to run the program.

[01:07:03] And it is our hope that that would impact the number of interested candidates that we're able to get. So that was my first question about why has it been so hard staffing these positions.

[01:07:19] I guess my other question is, is funding for this program in the FY24 budget that we just adopted? The 3.5 FTEs are in the FY24 budget, yes. Okay, thank you.

[01:07:35] Additional questions or comments don't see any so we'll bring this back for action next board meeting with that We'll move to 4.06 from division council for an update on the collective bargaining process

[01:07:57] Good afternoon board members.

[01:08:22] I wanted to give you all an update on collective bargaining this afternoon As you may know the Loudoun Education Association Recently represented to the clerk of the board in writing that a majority of employees in a potential bargaining unit has expressed support for collective bargaining and so assuming that is true that would trigger an obligation on the school board to vote on a collective bargaining resolution in the near future and so with that in mind I wanted to go through what that would look like and what the next steps would be for the board next slide please and the outline of what I'm going to cover is here we'll go through the history very briefly our timeline moving forward and what a potential resolution would look like and then just for

[01:09:01] understanding at a 101 level uh you know collective bargaining is is essentially just the relationship between an employer and a labor organization representing a specific group of employees to negotiate certain terms of employment so when we're referring to collective bargaining that's what we're speaking about uh next slide please so up until very recently public sector collective bargaining in virginia was actually prohibited uh school boards in virginia could not legally recognize and bargain with a labor union or any other employee association as the exclusive exclusive bargaining agent of the employees and for many years we were one of the few states that did not permit public employee collective

[01:09:40] bargaining which was actually prohibited in a Supreme Court of Virginia opinion from 1977 regarding Arlington Public Schools but in May of 2020 legislation passed by the General Assembly became effective and permitted public bodies including school boards to legally recognize and bargain with the labor union or other employee association as the exclusive bargaining agent and to collectively bargain with them and enter into a collective bargaining agreement regarding any matter relating to them or their employment or service with a few exceptions that I'll address shortly next slide please so under this legislation as a board can enact a collective bargaining resolution or

[01:10:20] ordinance on its own or a group of employees can initiate the process as they did here by submitting a certification from a majority of employees in a proposed bargaining unit, asking the board to take a vote within 120 days on whether to adopt or not adopt a resolution regarding collective bargaining.

[01:10:38] And LCPS staff in the LEA and VEA are still in the process of reviewing those signatures and that support at this time, and I'll address that shortly as well. But just to clarify, there's absolutely nothing in the Code of Virginia that requires the board to enact a resolution or formally resolution supporting collective bargaining or to formally recognize the labor organization.

[01:11:00] The obligation under the code is just to hold a vote. Next slide, please. And so the primary purpose of this presentation is to discuss where we were and where we're going over the coming months. As you may remember, the board received a presentation and adopted a collective bargaining certification procedure in June of 2022.

[01:11:19] And in August of 2022, that procedure was amended. In January 31 of this year, LCPS received a certification of support from the LEA on behalf of all licensed teachers within LCPS and under the new legislation The 120 day timeline for the board to vote on a collective bargaining resolution to provide for collective bargaining Within LCPS began on that date Today February 14 happy Valentine's Day We're presenting to the board on where we are at the moment and on February 28 lcps will work with the lea and the vea the virginia education association to verify the

[01:11:54] cards of employees supporting certification in the event those cards indicate majority support then lcps would be obligated to vote on whether to allow for collective bargaining by may 31 2023 and to clarify this is not requiring the board to adopt a collective bargaining agreement by that time that would need to be negotiated at a later date this would just be to determine whether the board wishes to engage in collective bargaining next slide please and so if the board chooses not to adopt collective bargaining of course that doesn't mean that employees don't have any recourse to communicate directly with the board LCPS does not have an exclude an express meet and confer

[01:12:32] procedure as Prince William County Schools used to have I believe and I think other school divisions may have as well but of course employees do have the opportunity to communicate their concerns to school board members under our policy 2530 and that would remain in effect even if collective bargaining was not adopted next slide please if collective bargaining is adopted by the school board it would not be completely unfettered under the code of virginia collective bargaining resolution cannot restrict the loudon county board of supervisors authority to appropriate funds and school boards do not have taxing authority and so any commitments made by the school board regarding salaries for example

[01:13:11] would be necessarily subject to appropriation other provisions of state law may also limit what the board is permitted to negotiate for example in addition to the concerns regarding budgets the board would not be permitted to adopt a process that conflicts with for example the state mandated grievance procedures finally virginia law expressly prohibits employees from engaging in strikes and so that could not be included in a collective bargaining agreement either next slide please in the event the board approves collective bargaining a collective bargaining resolution would necessarily contain certain components first a determination of the

[01:13:49] appropriate bargaining units would be necessary as would a certification procedure for the election of an exclusive bargaining representative the determination of subjects for collective bargaining a timetable for the process determination of what constitutes prohibited or unfair labor practices mechanism by which to administer the collective bargaining resolution and then impasse procedures and so I'm not going to go into every single one of those components today but I do want to touch on the main ones next slide please and so maybe the most important piece of the collective bargaining resolution is to determine who are going to be the appropriate

[01:14:26] bargaining units and for determination of an appropriate bargaining unit the board would need to determine who should be included in the bargaining unit or units and who would be excluded so typically elected officials supervisory employees confidential employees and that would mean employees who are in the superintendent's office division counsel or HR temporary intermittent or seasonal employees or volunteers who are technically not really employees at all those categories would be the types of categories that are commonly excluded although the board would not necessarily be prohibited including them in bargaining units if they wish to do so next slide please

[01:15:04] next you need a certification of the election procedures for the exclusive bargaining representative for the bargaining units and you would need to determine how employees in the bargaining unit will choose their representative similarly you'd need to also have a decertification process for a labor organization in the event the bargaining unit decides they wish to have a different representation next slide please additionally the board will need to determine what will be mandatory permissive and prohibited subjects for collective bargaining subject to certain exceptions regarding strikes and the appropriation authority as I mentioned earlier the board has broad authority on what they wish to negotiate and to be clear these are not things that are

[01:15:44] statutorily required to be mandated these would be the provisions that the board obligates itself to be negotiated in a collective bargaining agreement permissive subjects are the ones that the parties may agree to to negotiate but not be required to negotiate and prohibited subjects are the ones that the board expressly states that it will not or cannot negotiate next slide please and so again uh prohibited subjects would typically be vrs retirement funds that's set up under state law state mandated grievance grievance procedures and any other topics that the board wishes to remove from negotiation of course

[01:16:23] any resolution that includes provisions that restrict the governing body's authority to establish a budget or appropriate funds would be prohibited for a collective bargaining resolution as well next slide please and finally one of the primary questions regarding collective bargaining relates to the resources that may be required by the division if collective if a collective bargaining resolution is adopted so far other public bodies have taken some different routes some to my knowledge have thus far hired no additional employees at least not yet some have hired several I believe Loudoun County has actually

[01:17:00] hired I believe it's 10 additional employees so far and how many employees will be required for LCPS will almost necessarily depend on what the scope of collective bargaining is and how many bargaining units are adopted but potentially it could require additional HRTD and I and I neglected to add but it would also likely include additional business and financial services staff potentially a labor negotiator along with adequate staff additional attorneys either in-house or increased use of outside counsel and then finally the use of an outside neutral to manage elections and the certification of

[01:17:40] employee bargaining groups and to resolve disputes under the provisions of the resolution but again all that would be dependent on the scope of the resolution and so with that I'm happy to answer any questions board members I'll open it up for questions on where we are on collective bargaining and the process going forward.

[01:18:03] Ms. Okadekbe. Thank you, Chair Fratkin. You said Loudoun County hired 10 employees. I'm assuming you meant another jurisdiction. I meant the Loudoun County government, not LCPS.

[01:18:28] Does that make sense? I mean, is that your question? It does. Yeah, that makes more sense. Thank you so much. I misinterpreted that. Thank you. Additional questions? Mr. Mahedby? Thank you, Chair. So, Mr. Falcone, I guess I'm looking at this has kind of been at least the last couple of years since, like, as you mentioned, from 2020, this has been kind of on and off, and the discussion keeps coming back.

[01:19:00] And I think there is discussion has been on, you know, ultimately from my point of view where I've shared is what are those items that we'll be looking in the resolution on making them part of the collective bargaining.

[01:19:19] Now, is there a blueprint? Is there an exhaustive list of what those items could be? Or these are just something that both parties kind of put on the table of what they're going to bargain on? Or is there something that comes from, you know, it has to have some sort of blueprint or some sort of a template to bring them, saying, well, here's the things.

[01:19:40] For example, certain things you mentioned you cannot bargain on. For example, I think the VRS or state-managed grievances or other topics selected by the school board. What is that list? Are you going to be bringing that list forward at some point because that would help in making sort of the next sort of decision on, you know, how do we proceed versus just saying whether we do call your bargain or not.

[01:20:10] Thank you, Mr. Mahadevi. So it really depends on what the board wants to adopt. But broadly speaking, it would be salaries, benefits, and terms and conditions of employment.

[01:20:27] And so to the extent, again, subject to appropriation, one of the things that, you know, there's an argument, I think, that any term is potentially subject to appropriation because if it requires a fresh coat of paint, well, in offices, well, that still costs money too.

[01:20:47] And so I think that that's part of it, but broadly speaking, it would be, I think those are the three main categories. So in terms of employment, that would be just, I'm just giving some examples. additional breaks additional planning periods would be options and then salaries and then benefits additional questions so I just want to make sure I understand on the timeline so the hundred and twenty days has already started that's not that doesn't start when we verify the signatures it's just

[01:21:24] that if for some reason we didn't verify the signatures or we felt they didn't have enough it would stop but otherwise we would just have however many days are remaining of the 120 days since they delivered them to us in order to take that up and down vote on collective bargaining.

[01:21:40] Is that accurate? That's correct. And I think it was the February 28th date. Is that like all the work to certify is happening on that one day or that's just when it will be completed by? Both.

[01:21:58] All the work will be done that day and we will be completed by that day. Thank you. Any additional questions? Mr. Beatty. to my colleagues and such, have we been provided a list of things that the LEA is interested in bargaining in? All I've really seen are something like planning time, which I think we could fix through the normal bureaucratic process. So, you know, maybe if LEA is listening, they could provide exactly what they're interested in. Going back to what Mr. Mahedby said, you know, there's a lot of things up for discussion of what we could potentially bargain on, but

[01:22:35] if we don't really know, you know, it just seems like this is a union for the sake of a union. So, no, Mr. Falconer. I'm sorry, Mr. Biddy, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I was going to answer your question. So the LEA did provide a model resolution, collective bargaining resolution, which does include, I believe, their terms.

[01:22:54] That would be a helpful starting point, certainly something the board could consider. Has that been sent to us? Did I miss that? I'm sorry. I believe so, but if it hasn't, I'll certainly make sure it gets your way. Additional questions?

[01:23:11] Seeing none. So I think that the next step will be the results of the certification on the on the 28th and then we'll consider additional actions or scheduling after that point. Yes, sir. Thank you. So with that, board members, we're going to press on with some of our other information items that we have time.

[01:23:35] We're going to start with 1503 from the Discipline Committee Policy 8215 in school disciplinary measures. Ms. Ogadagbe, would you like to provide an overview? Yes. I'd also like to ask Dr. Ellis to join. We've talked about this, I think.

[01:24:02] Dr. Ellis is approaching the microphone and is ready to go, but if you have any introductory comments, you can make them now. So this is related to policy 8215 for in-school disciplinary measures.

[01:24:19] This policy, we received a good amount of feedback on this and wanted to thank both SEAC and MSAC committees for their detailed review of the policy and the suggestions for

[01:24:41] edit. So there is this focuses on the intervention strategies and disciplinary measures that are implemented by a principal or designee at the school site in a fair and equitable manner to contribute to the quality of a student's educational experience. It's important to note

[01:25:18] specifically in school disciplinary measures and there are other policies that address other alternative placement. So some of the feedback that we received addressed those other types of disciplinary measures. There are also questions that came up with the feedback that really are addressed through the LCPS Code of Conduct. So one of the suggestions that I had made to staff was to offer an opportunity to do a walkthrough of the associated areas of the Code of Conduct

[01:25:54] for the committee to make sure that folks are familiar with the process that occurs. Dr. Ellis, would you like to add anything else for this one?

[01:26:12] Sure. Thank you, Ms. Ogadagby. So I will just reiterate the last part of what she said because, again, I think it's a little choppy and she and I did talk ahead of time. So just to emphasize what Ms. Ogadagby said, much of the feedback that we did receive from the committees really was around information that is in the LCPS code of conduct and the LCPS student rights and rights and responsibilities or the SR&R for example definitions topic strategies and intervention practices related to student discipline that the day-to-day and so one one thing that we discussed

[01:26:51] and plan to do moving forward is to offer that staff present the code of conduct and the student rights and responsibilities to those committees so to offer it to CIAC and MSAC and others so that everyone is aware of what is in those documents and then the other thing I would like to share just very briefly is an overview of some of the changes that you'll see in the red line version so it's been updated in general to incorporate a few things including engaging the unified mental health team to improve student behaviors in relation to academic social emotional and behavior strategies the combination of

[01:27:30] restorative practice measures with other dispositions more clear language regarding the notification of parents or guardians of in-school disciplinary measures specifically related to detention and removal from class maintenance of unstructured time per policy 5011 in regards to the denial of school privileges so unstructured time or recess cannot be cannot be denied a student the option for parents and guardians to request a review of any in school disciplinary measure by the school principal the option for parents

[01:28:07] or guardians to petition for a review of any bus suspension in the same manner they would a short-term suspension per the regulation 82 20 - 1 and then the committee had a really good conversation about tracking patterns of classroom removal and subsequently providing reports to the school board in related related to disproportionality any trends that that we see related to that so in board docs you have a clean version the red line version and all of the feedback that was received and with that I will turn it back to you mr. Sorokin thank

[01:28:46] you dr. Ellis board members any questions or discussion regarding the changes to this policy mr. Madhavi thank you chair I'm part of the committee so I So I don't -- I think just -- I think the only thing, Dr. Ellis, is that we did get -- I know we incorporated a lot of the feedback we got from SEAC, but I think MSAC, we didn't have some of their feedback earlier on.

[01:29:10] So I think just to kind of bring back to the board members that I think some of the feedback we got from MSAC somehow in the process-wise was not there. So I think we can perhaps as a board, when we do go into action, I tend to look some of the feedback that provided.

[01:29:26] I plan to make some motions to amend certain things. So we'll bring back and make sort of adjustments based on the MSAC feedback as well. That's just going to add to this discussion. Additional questions?

[01:29:42] Ms. Corbo. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am just concerned about line number 85 where the policy talks about reporting removal from instruction to parents.

[01:30:00] And on that line, it says that the exception would be if there was some sort of other plan for the student. I believe that the parent should be notified whether there's a plan in place or not. I know that there's some IEPs or plans that might state that a student would be removed if this were to occur.

[01:30:21] But I still believe that the parent should be notified in some way in some capacity. So, perhaps a weekly report, if it's in the IEP, you know, your child was removed from class X amount of times. I think that that is very beneficial in creating the new plans that are ongoing.

[01:30:39] So, that's the only thing that I can provide input on. Thank you. Ms. Okedekbe? I'd have to go back, but I believe that that edit was directly from the Act's recommendation.

[01:30:57] I understand what you're saying, so I think this would be something. I'll go back and just double-check with them and then, as Mr. Mahedevi mentioned, when this comes back for action, if there are further options, we can make some decisions.

[01:31:15] Additional comments. Ms. Polifko. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Ms. Corbo and Ms. Ogadevi. I wanted to just briefly, Ms. Corbo, go back to that line that you were referring to, if I'm correct.

[01:31:30] I believe it is that the parents or guardians of any student shall be notified if a student is removed from instruction for any discipline action or for any other reason if it is not related to their comprehensive support plan, safety plan, IEP, or BIP.

[01:31:46] The original version had that parents would not be notified unless a student was out of class for more than 30 minutes. So we struck that, and we made sure that the language included notifying the parents if the student was removed from class for any reason.

[01:32:04] Does that answer your earlier question? Yeah, I think that helps. Thank you. Additional discussion? Seeing none, it sounds like we may have some amendments to this when it comes back, so we will bring this back as an action item on our next meeting.

[01:32:24] With that, we'll move to 15.04, also from the Discipline Committee for Policy 8260, Reporting of Student Conduct. Ms. Okedekbe. Thank you, Chair Trotkin.

[01:32:40] So this one we had a healthy discussion about as well. And I think one of the most important things to note about this policy is that it is addressing, for the large part, items that we are required to report by law.

[01:33:06] So many of the comments that came through in comment were questioning why certain things needed to be reported, but by Virginia law, we are required to do so. And part of the edits that were made, as you'll see in the red line version, includes citations just so that it's clear where that's coming from.

[01:33:34] Some of the updates also just address who is making the report so that it's clear whose responsibility it is to make those reports. There is Section C is new related to reports to law.

[01:33:59] I'm not going to read it out loud. And there is also, you know, starting on line 114, and this is important.

[01:34:22] It goes back to the comments earlier about the joint meeting in April, but that in order to further memorialize the provisions in this section, that it would be important to incorporate these into the future memorandum of understanding.

[01:34:41] I'm going to pause and just ask if you can hear me, because I hear a lot of static on the line. We can mostly hear you in the room. Okay, I apologize. I don't know what the static is coming from. And again, sort of in line with the previous one in terms of regular reporting requirements, making sure that each very clear what the requirements are for the principal or designee,

[01:35:21] what the superintendent is submitting in terms of the Department of Education. And I will ask Dr. Ellis if there's anything that you wanted to add about this one.

[01:35:39] - Thank you, Ms. Ogadagby. I would like to just remind the board that this actually was presented to the school board information item in November and was referred back to the discipline committee for additional discussion and as Miss Ogedegby mentioned the the majority of this policy is based on code most of the language in fact coming straight from code some of the conversation was particularly around section A2 for example that language was not changed as it does come straight from code also B2

[01:36:14] same thing one change that was was made since you saw it last was on if you're in the clean version of the policy on line 127 D4 the principal or designee shall also notify the parent of any student other than that as Ms. Ogadabee mentioned it really is pretty straightforward because of the code which line number did you say that was on the clean version um line 127 let me let me check the

[01:36:52] red line version as well so what can you just wow so but what was the change that was made since the board last saw it i believe it was changed from shall to will but i may have that backwards miss ogudib or another committee members i do have that backwards so it should read in the version that you will vote on the principal or designee shall also notify the parent so

[01:37:30] more specific language so i think that's backwards in the at least in the clean version because it looks like it's will it is and we will correct that board members any questions or discussion regarding this policy ms corba thank you mr chairman um i i'm wondering are there regulations that go along with this policy there are not currently regulations with this policy right My concern is how we are collecting that data.

[01:38:07] I know that there's brave inconsistencies across the division in different schools. And although the school administrator here, we're saying needs to make these reports, if the school administrator is not informed of the information, then the reports aren't accurate.

[01:38:27] And so I strongly believe that we need to have a consistent and formal reporting process to ensure that we are getting all of the data and all the incidents that are occurring in schools.

[01:38:44] Additional discussion? So board members, is there interest? Oh, sorry, Ms. Ogadugbe, go ahead. I think I was going to ask the question you're about to ask.

[01:39:00] Go ahead. Thank you. Board members, is there interest in placing this on consent for the next board meeting? So there is not, so we'll place it on action. Go ahead.

[01:39:16] Thank you. Going back to Corvo's comment. So if there is a desire to have more explicit instructions in the form of a regulation, how would that move forward as an act? I also support that.

[01:39:32] Dr. Ellis, do you want to briefly speak to the process by which regulations would get written? Yes. So typically once a policy is in place, then staff is tasked with writing the regulation.

[01:39:51] Regulations do not typically go through the board for review or approval. Staff writes the regulation. It's reviewed by legal and also the cabinet before it is placed on the public website attached to the policy.

[01:40:11] Ms. Corba. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And then I would propose that we have a regulation to go along with this, or we include the process or procedure that we expect in this policy.

[01:40:27] So that way it's consistent throughout the division, is my proposal. Additional discussion? Seeing none, we will bring this back for action at our next meeting.

[01:40:48] with that we'll move to 1505 from the finance and operations committee revision of policy 7620 payroll procedures mr morse thank you mr chair this policy was in finance and operations committee as an information item on december 13th the consensus was to move this forward to the full school board for consideration the policy has some minor adjustments including an adjustment for a unique situation where employees may start before august 15th And the pay scale or the pay would not be synchronized, so they've captured that adjustment.

[01:41:26] Other adjustments have been made to ensure it aligns with VSBA and LCPS practices. Board members, any questions or discussion regarding changes to this policy? Seeing none interest in placing this on consent during our next board meeting.

[01:41:47] Ms. Ogud. Ms. Polivko. Thumbs for consent. No? Okay. There's not, so we'll place this on action for our next board meeting. With that, we're up to 1506 from the HRTD committee, policy 7302, appointment and assignment.

[01:42:08] Ms. Ogadegvi. Thank you, Chair Sorotkin. So the appointment and assignment policy was up for review, and we had nine items for action at the last committee meeting, and you'll see three of them on the agenda this evening with a hard stop after an hour, had a lot of discussion about many of them. But for this one, we made changes to clarify

[01:42:42] the process through which appointments and assignments occur. And then a lot of the edits were in the interview section. It also cites, adds the citation to Regulation 3120, talks about the composition of interview panels for principal positions, there was actually online 27 of the red line version. I had a question that had come up during committee that I wanted to bring to the full board for discussion and really primarily to the board

[01:43:21] members who were on the board when the provision was added. But I had questioned the inclusion of a school board member in the interview panel for principals when the school board members are serving in what's called an observational capacity.

[01:43:42] It struck me that this could be awkward or intimidating for candidates and wanted to understand the rationale for inclusion in an interview where you're not really able to participate. Ms. Okadekbe, was that a question for staff or a question for the board?

[01:44:12] It's actually a question for the board, for folks who were on the board at that time. I believe that the edit happened during a board session that Mr. Morris and Ms. Sheridan were perhaps on the board.

[01:44:29] And if you don't have comments, I'm interested in having a discussion with other board members about that piece of the policy because I had made a motion to strike that in committee and after discussion with the other committee member who was there at the time.

[01:44:52] It was just Mr. Mejedevi and I, we talked about bringing it back to the full board for discussion because it had been added at one point inside the board. And so the suggestion was to bring it back for discussion to see what the thoughts were about that particular part of the policy.

[01:45:11] Board members, any discussion related to thoughts or observations about school board members serving in observation on the interview panels for principals?

[01:45:30] Mr. Morrison. - Thank you Mr. Chair. So this does go back about six or eight years. 10, okay, so Ms. Sheridan is correcting me. 10 years, at which point we were discussing the impact of having a board member serve on that panel and the concern that a board member has visibility on the dais into that decision and it would be unusual and awkward to have them sitting in as a voting member on the panel itself.

[01:46:00] So the discussion was that a board member would be able to sit on the panel confirm for other board members that the panel was properly run that the candidates were of suitable quality and that they were you know they would support the selection that is made by the superintendent through the by the staff through the superintendent so that's that's why it was included in there I see the language is still here so my my understanding is it's still part and recommended to continue in the policy and I think during this term I I probably sat on the lion's share of these because all the new schools we've been opening have been in my district for the most part.

[01:46:42] For me, I think it's helpful in seeing who's applying and hearing what they have to say. And while I haven't taken any part in the decision-making process because I'm just there as an observer, I thought it was helpful to have an opportunity to meet the people who are applying and who the successful candidate is going to be so that it's just an introduction to the relationship that would be furthered once they're in the position and I meet with them as the sitting principal of the school.

[01:47:13] As to whether it's intimidating for school board members to be in there, I've not gotten that feedback. So I don't know whether that's been a concern that's been raised to staff or been raised to others, but if it is, then that is not feedback that I have heard.

[01:47:31] Ms. Korba. Thank you, Mrs. Kierman. I'll agree. I've sat on one of these committees as well, and I think it is very beneficial for a school board member to hear the different candidates, what they're bringing to the table, and also just to get an idea of the experience, the job, the questions.

[01:47:56] All of that I think is very beneficial, especially for board members that aren't familiar with education. I think that it just allows for another insight. And again, it shouldn't be intimidating, you know, because they are applying for a principalship and they should be able to express and communicate with everyone in the district.

[01:48:20] So that's my opinion. Okay, go ahead. Any additional questions or discussion? Ms. Okedekbe. Thank you. Thank you all for your feedback on that. That's helpful. I was thinking of it purely from the matter of just having an observer who doesn't engage or doesn't participate seems very awkward, but it's helpful for me to hear that this has been for those who have the opportunity to participate.

[01:48:55] So again, the rest of the edits are really largely providing clarification on the composition of the panel. So I don't have anything else to add to that.

[01:49:12] Board members, any additional questions or discussion? Seeing none, interest in placing this on consent during our next board meeting. I see thumbs up from everyone, so we will place this on consent during the February 28th meeting.

[01:49:30] I think we can get through one more, so we'll move to 1507. also from HRTD, Policy 7304, Licensed Employee Transfers and Involuntary Reassignments.

[01:49:46] Ms. Okedegbe. Thank you, Chair Sorotkin. So for this one, I think, again, a lot of good feedback through the public comment. One of the changes that we reversed through committee that had been in the original ResLine version was to put back in the word involuntary.

[01:50:08] One of the changes was to rename the policy to be licensed employee transfers and reassignments. And while it could be considered to be duplicative to have involuntary and reassignments, I thought that it was important to be explicit about the fact that reassignments are not voluntary.

[01:50:34] That word was added back in. One of the other requests that we made through committee is that based on some discrepancies between this policy and the associated regulation was that the regulation should be updated and provided to the board to review in conjunction with the policy edits before the board takes action on the policy.

[01:51:11] because more details about how the transfer process works are outlined in the associated direction. Board members, any questions or discussion regarding the changes to this policy?

[01:51:31] Mr. Mehedvi. Thank you, Chair. So, Ms. Oktubay, you know, again, I see some feedback coming out from LEA. Were those feedback already incorporated by the committee? I'd have, right now, I'd have to go back and double-check.

[01:51:52] I believe that we had incorporated some, but again, a lot of the details are addressed in the regulation. So I might ask Ms. Boland if you have any comments on that. Ms. Boland? So in just briefly looking at the information, it looks like most of these items were included.

[01:52:22] If not in the policy, they're included in the regulation. Thank you. Board members, Mr. Morse. Just one quick question. In the policy, it discusses extenuating circumstances or situations in which the principal can select other than the most junior tenured person within that skill set.

[01:52:49] Is there a list of what those exceptions would be or examples so that the community and specifically our educators understand what criteria may be used? So I think we could provide some of them, but they wouldn't be all inclusive because most of them come from accommodations or something having to do with medical leave or military leave or some type of protected status.

[01:53:24] I think that kind of classification is very helpful. I was just wondering if there were specific examples of CLT, you know, when you talk about team leads and things like that, that would be helpful for us to understand. And you could categorize the others in a large category, medical necessity, you know, military duty, and those type of exceptions.

[01:53:45] So I think it would just be helpful for us to better understand what exceptions could be applied to the prioritization of the employees. Board members, any additional questions? Ms. Corbo.

[01:54:02] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I'm a little bit concerned about removing some of the procedural information from the policy and moving it to regulation. I think that for a policy of this nature, when we're talking about employment, I think it's important to have a clear process in the policy. I know that I did ask about policies and regulations, and policies cannot be changed. Regulations can be, however,

[01:54:38] without the board approval. And I think that for a clear reference, I would like to see that back into the policy and um and also i would like to confer a little bit more with lea and their um and their thoughts as well thank you additional comments seeing none is their interest in placing this on consent next board meeting i'm guessing no but i'll check that's a no so we'll place this

[01:55:13] on action for the february 28th meeting at this time we are going to go into recess and we will

[01:55:22] be back for our evening session at 6 30 p. m. the board is now in recess good evening the board is

[02:27:32] coming out of recess we will be picking up with item seven for the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem our pledge leader tonight is reagan bischoff from river bend middle school reagan was given the bryant cone empowerment award from brain injury services for her work in helping brain injury survivors like herself she started her youtube channel throw lefty to share helpful hacks for everyday tasks and is now hosting monthly chat sessions with other teenage girls with cerebral palsy. She was recently named one of People Magazine's 2022

[02:28:08] Girls Changing the World and was recognized on the Today Show last month. She looks forward to continuing her advocacy in a new venture helping develop an interactive disability awareness workshop for school systems and child-serving organizations across the country. Please enjoy this video of Regan featured on the Today Show.

[02:28:29] Help other people figure out how to do things even when it's challenging. Meet Regan Bischoff, a hardworking eighth grader at school who also plays trumpet, hangs out with her bestie, and plays lacrosse, a sport she's loved since first grade.

[02:28:46] Good job, Regan! With lacrosse, all my teammates are really, really supportive. Regan is not just any 13-year-old defending the goal. After brain surgery, At two months for a seizure disorder, she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, limiting use of the left side of her body, including her left hand.

[02:29:07] But Regan refuses to let this incurable yet treatable condition stop her from chasing her dreams. Regan, for folks who don't understand, what is it like living with cerebral palsy? Living with cerebral palsy is a big difference from living without it.

[02:29:27] You won't be able to do certain things like cut fruit or being able to button jeans. I always had a hard time doing those things until I found certain tools. I never say I can't do it. I say, how can we figure this out? To help mobility, Regan often wears a wireless medical brace on her left leg.

[02:29:47] Danielle, I would imagine that you have to be quite proud. Yeah, absolutely. Regan really works hard. There's a lot of things that we throw her way, and we don't ever let her say no. Reagan's mission is to inspire young people with similar disabilities to simply go for it, even with everyday tasks.

[02:30:07] And here is a ponytail. So, she created the video channel Throw Lefty last year. Most of the time at school, I get asked, what is wrong with your hand? Why do you have this? The hardest part is helping her navigate some of the challenges at school with regards to bullying or with regards to questions.

[02:30:27] - Reagan, tell me about this YouTube channel. - My coaches would always yell at me, throw lefty, throw lefty, and I couldn't. I would always get so frustrated with myself. And so one day I figured it out. I had to switch to my left side. So that's why it's called Throw Lefty.

[02:30:43] - What are you trying to accomplish with the videos? - I was like, "Dad, I really want to be able dry my hair by myself we found a clamp that would clip to my counter and then i would clip the hair dryer into the clamp so this is how i dry my hair not just drawing your hair though i mean we're talking cutting apples tying shoelaces yeah i'm trying to help other kids be more positive and more confident with themselves while raising awareness reagan was among people's girls changing

[02:31:16] the world in 2022 and was honored by virginia-based non-profit brain injury services where she's received support my parents always remind me to to focus on what i can do rather than what i can't we couldn't let reagan go without a well-deserved surprise who are some of the players that you've enjoyed watching i like watching unc taylor marino because she's really good moreno helped university of north carolina women's lacrosse capture its third national title last year and is currently a pro playing for athletes unlimited i think we have a special

[02:31:55] guest taylor you are you here hey reagan reagan meet taylor i can only imagine the pressure of being a goalkeeper in your situation and to see the work that you've put in is an inspiration Regan what do you think you're really cool, and I think you're a really good goalie on behalf of myself and some of my guys at Nike lacrosse We're gonna be sending you Assigned athletes unlimited Jersey. We got some brand new Nike goalie gloves That was awesome

[02:32:31] And here's the thing Taylor. She stayed true to a word by the way. She actually took it a step further She went to Reagan's school, surprised her, hand-delivering the gear on behalf of herself and Nike. Taylor, she's not a paid Nike athlete, but they do support her with equipment.

[02:32:49] Oh, that is everything. Well, Reagan's supporting us. Yes. That is so inspirational. All the best. Thank you, Reagan. By the way, for more about Reagan and her YouTube channel, go to our website, today.com. That was good. That was good. So in a moment, Reagan will lead us in the National Anthem.

[02:33:16] Excuse me, in the Pledge of Allegiance. Sorry, didn't mean to surprise you. And then following that, the Rockridge High School Chamber Orchestra will lead us in the National Anthem. The Rockridge High School Chamber Orchestra is a member of the Blue Ribbon Award-winning Performance Arts Program at Rockridge High School in Ashburn.

[02:33:35] Under the direction of Teresa L. Gordon, the Chamber Orchestra consists of 9th through 12th grade string students performing on violin, viola, cello, and bass. In addition to their many academic accomplishments, members of the Chamber Orchestra compete and consistently place in LCPS, regional, and state honors ensembles, including the Virginia Governor's Schools for the Arts.

[02:34:00] The Rockridge Chamber Orchestra enjoys sharing their skill and passion for music with family, friends, and the community. Thank you for allowing them to perform our national anthem this evening. So at this point, I will ask that everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for the national anthem.

[02:34:22] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which...

[02:34:33] Thank you all for being here tonight and for that amazing performance.

[02:36:32] Next, we will move to item 8. 01 on the agenda for the one LCPS spotlight on legacy elementary, deeper learning, and the LCPS profile of a graduate.

[02:36:59] Good evening. My name is Kirsten O'Hare, and I'm the principal at Legacy Elementary, and I would like to thank the school board for the opportunity to share how we are empowering students at Legacy Elementary School through personalized learning, the five C's, and computer science.

[02:37:21] We have brought with us third and fourth grade students and staff to share how we have embraced one LCPS at Legacy Elementary School. And I, along with our IFT and our computer science facilitator, had the opportunity to interview our four kids this week to help them to decide what to share with you.

[02:37:43] And please know, they're not our words, they are theirs. And I would like to introduce my assistant principal, Mrs. Melissa Bouguet. Good evening. Thank you for having us. LCPS 1 core values are all important. However, for tonight, we're highlighting rigorous teaching,

[02:38:03] individualized success, and continuous improvement. Good evening. My name is Logan McIntosh, the IFT at Legacy Elementary School, and we have Rebecca Gratz, who is our computer science facilitator. When it comes to student empowerment at Legacy Elementary School, our teachers do a wonderful job of Providing our students multiple avenues with which to showcase their learning and

[02:38:42] I'm just so proud of everything that they are able to accomplish on a daily basis our teachers work extremely hard they provide their students voice and choice and nurturing learning environments and Inclusiveness each and every day if you take a look at the graphic on the next slide you will see this is a visual representation of the ways in which our teachers extend the LCPS initiatives to their students daily, whether it be the five C's, computer science, voice and choice,

[02:39:20] differentiation, personalized learning, deeper learning and rigor. And of course, at the center of this all would be our students who we care deeply about. Every person, every day, we're preparing our students to be meaningful contributors to society and so at this time I would like to turn things over to our legacy teachers and students. Thank you. Good evening my name is Maggie Ogden and I'm a third grade teacher at Legacy Elementary. I have the pleasure of introducing to you Naira Tuku and

[02:39:57] Anae Patel and they are two third graders ready to tell you how we use personalized learning and the five C's in our math. My name is Naira Tuku I am a third grade student at Legacy Elementary. We do playlists in my math class. I like division and multiplication playlists because you can do a lot in life with these skills. My activities are listed by the five C's. I have critical

[02:40:33] thinking on my playlists. Some of my may do's are more challenging than my messages. Collaboration activities are always fun. My name is N.A. Patel and I'm a I am a third grade student at Legacy Elementary.

[02:40:57] Playlists are similar for everyone in the class, but not the same. Like, someone may have critical thinking as a must do, but mine is a may do. We have different activities on our playlists that help us in math that are from the five C's. Like creative activities pull from the back of your brain, critical thinking pulls from the front of my brain.

[02:41:16] Collaborating is always in the may do, because it's always really fun. - Hello, my name is Courtney McCartney, and I'm a fourth grade teacher at Legacy, And I'd like to introduce Ava Wellington and Noah Fernandez, who will tell us how fourth grade utilizes computer science and differentiation.

[02:41:45] My name is Ava Wellington, and I'm a fourth grade student at Legacy Elementary. In our math class, my teacher knows what's best for me and what can help me improve the most. Certain math problems challenge me. I have Maydos on my playlists that I can choose to do.

[02:42:03] Some things I get to do through collaboration. I enjoy coding in my class. I like coding outside of school and in my classroom. I like computer science because I like using the sprites.

[02:42:21] They're like little characters that you can use. One of my favorites is the Labrador dog that's black that looks like our mascot. My name is Noah Fernandez, and I'm a fourth-grade student at Legacy Elementary.

[02:42:45] I don't want work that is below my level or even on my level. I want to be challenged with harder stuff. Long division challenges me. Ms. McCartney finds things we need more review on and that is always on our playlist. I coded a game for math that I can do a lot with.

[02:43:00] It is a number generator, but I can do a lot more with it. It's actually pretty fun. We need the stool, but we want to thank you so much for allowing our students to come shine as bright as they do at our school every day.

[02:43:19] Thank you. Ms. O'Hara and team, thank you very much for the overview and the presentation. I have one question for the students. What's the most interesting or fun thing you've learned this school year, if anything comes to mind?

[02:43:41] More than one number is for, like, multiplying and dividing, subtracting on my number generator.

[02:43:57] The most interesting things that I learned this year are probably computer science and division and multiplication.

[02:44:17] The most interesting that I learned is make coding on CS First. One thing I learned this school year is that you can make a number generator through computer science with certain school apps with CS First.

[02:44:45] Thank you so much. That's really interesting to hear about. Board members, do you have any questions for the legacy students or their teachers? Mr. Morris. Okay, so I'm going to date myself a little bit here, but playlist in my day was music.

[02:45:06] It sounds like you guys are enjoying it a lot more than I enjoyed my music, and you're learning a lot more than I did. So how big is your playlist, and how often do you update it? Any of the students?

[02:45:28] When the playlist update is usually after we finish. So if we finish multiplication, then probably the day after or the day after that, to get our division playlist.

[02:45:57] - Mr. Mahedby. - Thank you, Chair. - I'm just, sorry, go ahead, Eva. - So, our teacher would update our playlist if we finish them, or if we finish them before, she would update them early. But if we finish one on Friday, she would update them the next week.

[02:46:24] - I just wanna say, I think this is really awesome. Again, it goes back to the Legacy Elementary and Ms. O'Hara for bringing the students and sharing the computer science program and how the kids are really learning and enjoying it. So I think this is, you know, we can sit here and sort of just start something, but to see how the kids are enjoying and how the kids are really immersing themselves, it's, the future is bright, I'd like to say.

[02:46:51] I mean, and thank you for all you do and kids. I, you know, I'm just floored by the maturity in second and fourth grade you're shown. Like Mr. Morris said, I mean, I think back in our time when we were probably in those grades. I don't know what we were doing, but it's so fascinating.

[02:47:10] So thank you for coming and sharing that. - Any additional questions or comments? - No, thank you again for the update and look forward to hearing even more about what's going on at Legacy in the near future. Thanks again.

[02:47:29] - With that, we'll move to item nine on our agenda, the student school board representatives comments. We have three tonight, and we'll be starting with Rashmi Admala, who is a senior at Freedom High School. She has been actively involved in student council since her freshman year, and is currently serving as Freedom's SCA president.

[02:47:52] Beyond student council at Freedom, she also engages with the Virginia Student Council Association as the region four representative to collaborate with SCAs in Loudoun County, Fairfax County, and Prince William County Public Schools. Rashmi is also an avid leader of her school's DECA chapter to fuel her interest in the business world.

[02:48:13] She competes at the state, district and international levels, most recently placing third at the DECA International Conference. Advocating for equity in educational institutions, as well as promoting diversity in all aspects, is important to her as a student in Loudoun County Public Schools.

[02:48:31] As an involved student at both the school level and the county level, Rashmi is honored and excited to represent Freedom High School on the school board this year. - Good evening, members of the school board. My name is Rashmi Anmala and I'm the student body president and representative to the school board from Freedom High School.

[02:48:50] Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share the many accomplishments of Freedom tonight. I would also like to thank my SCA advisors, Mr. King and Ms. Blufeld, and my principal, Ms. Chaudry, for their continual support of our student body. At Freedom, our motto is, where there is unity, there is freedom.

[02:49:06] Freedom's over 2,000 students are racially diverse with the 58% minority enrollment and are involved in varying campus activities. Yet, we are all united by the spirit of the Freedom Family. As a prime example, this year, our Student Council Association hosted our first indoor homecoming dance since 2019.

[02:49:24] Just three weeks after the start of the school year, we embraced a return to normalcy by hosting a homecoming spirit week, class competitions, and an indoor pep rally leading up to our earliest ever homecoming dance on September 17th. We sold tickets to over half of our student body to kick off a school year filled with unforgettable memories that reflected new normals and a return to old traditions.

[02:49:46] The Freedom SCA fosters unity by making every student feel seen and welcomed. This morning for Valentine's Day, our SCA members hung over 2,200 hearts with names, one for every student and faculty member at Freedom. It was truly heartwarming to witness weeks of preparation, creating visual excitement as members of our Freedom family search for their hearts around the school.

[02:50:06] We are especially proud of our celebration of Black History Month. With a theme that says Black History is Loudoun History, we hold weekly field trips to important Loudoun County locations related to Black history. The field trip is led by Pastor Michelle, and students who attended last Wednesday thoroughly enjoyed it.

[02:50:23] Freedom's feel-good spirit transcends school hours and unites students in the stands of every athletic event. With 43% of our student body participating in Freedom's athletic programs, one of the highest percentages in Loudoun County, it's clear that Freedom's students are accomplished student-athletes. Freedom's baseball team won the state championships last year, and with the spring approaching, I look forward to watching them the 2023 season.

[02:50:45] Both in and out of the classroom, Freedom High School promotes a culture of student achievement, as evident in our DECA program. On March 3rd, Freedom DECA will be sending 91 students to compete at the state conference. Last year, Freedom's DECA program had over 40 students advance to the international competition in Atlanta, and I'm beyond thrilled to see what Freedom DECA has in store for this year.

[02:51:06] In our fine arts programs, we are a long-standing blue ribbon school with the excellence of our band, orchestra, chorus, and guitar students. At their last competition of the season, Freedom's Marching Band won first place overall and best in music, visual, and color guard. Earlier this month, our band had 33 students advance to all district band, the highest acceptance rate out of all LCPS high schools.

[02:51:29] Our chorus program is phenomenal with 24 students being selected to participate in district chorus this past weekend. Freedom Orchestra also sends the most students to all-state orchestra out of all high schools in Virginia. This past weekend, our school community witnessed the talent of our Freedom Thespians as they performed for student-produced, directed, and written one-act plays.

[02:51:49] Yet the performances are not limited to our Freedom community. On January 21st, Freedom Theater won first place at the VHSL Regional One-Act Play Competition for Under the Ladder, a student-written play. On the theme of sharing our talents with the greater community, In November, Freedom hosted the Virginia Student Council Association's Region 4 workshop as the elected Region 4 representative school.

[02:52:11] We were honored to host over 180 student leaders from Loudoun and neighboring counties in developing their leadership skills while exchanging SCA ideas. Currently, Freedom is one of only six LCPS high schools represented in the Virginia Student Council Association. I strongly encourage LCPS high schools to become VSCA member schools and join a network of student leaders across the state.

[02:52:32] Both our elected SCA officers and exceptional sources of strength, peer, and Freedom Ambassadors student groups foster a supportive school culture. These student-led groups work tirelessly to promote an inclusive school community and welcome all those who are new to our school. This inclusivity includes intellectual contributions from students belonging to our many Honor Societies.

[02:52:52] At Freedom, our Honor Society students dedicate countless hours to tutoring at weekly academic support sessions. Each day, I'm beyond grateful to be a Freedom Eagle. As soon as I entered the school, I met with a kind-hearted atmosphere of freedom from the first good morning from our security officer.

[02:53:07] I feel we have a genuine appreciation and respect for one another. Freedom is truly family, and I seek to find a similar community in the next chapter of my life. Once again, I appreciate the opportunity to highlight Freedom High School's unparalleled student experience, and I look forward to speaking again in the coming weeks. Thank you.

[02:53:25] Second, we have Zachary Phillip Dantzler Ward from Loudoun Valley High School. Zachary is a senior and is the starting defensive end on the varsity football team and a volunteer food drive coordinator for the Tree of Life Ministries.

[02:53:48] Being the youngest of a large family, five sisters and two brothers, has given Zach the opportunity to watch and learn from his older siblings who have gone before and accomplished what he aspires to do and be. Four of his siblings attend Ivy League schools.

[02:54:05] Being able to maintain that academic standard while at the same time developing himself in athletics has given Zach the blessing of already having 14 Division I athletic football scholarship offers, seven of them coming from Ivy League and military academies.

[02:54:22] Learning to lead with the same love that his parents and siblings had has taken Zach to places he never would have thought, and he has faith that it will continue. Zach understands that leadership is not about titles, but rather about how you treat people and how you share your vision of excellence, whether in the classroom or on the football field.

[02:54:40] Zach is honored to be representing Loudoun Valley as the student representative to the school board. Good evening, everyone. My name is Zachary Dance Lord, and I am the student representative from Loudoun Valley High School. First off, I would like to thank Dr. Jones, Dr. Smith, and Dr. Ross for the opportunity to speak here this evening.

[02:55:01] It means the world to me to be able to have the opportunity to speak to the county about the many opportunities that we have at Loudoun Valley High School. When I came to Loudoun Valley two years ago, after being homeschooled, I thought I was enrolling solely for the purpose of athletics. Little did I know that I would be exposed to not only relationships that would last a lifetime, but more opportunities that I could have ever imagined.

[02:55:24] My experiences with my teachers and coaches at Loudoun Valley have taught me how valuable relationships can be in terms of goal setting and developing and earning mutual respect. Because of my relationships at Loudoun Valley, I've been able to understand the dynamics of what it takes to succeed as a student athlete by leaning into the strong and supportive learning environment that is Loudoun Valley.

[02:55:47] Although athletics have become my sanctuary, Loudoun Valley offers a vast array of opportunities throughout organizations, clubs, and activities for individuals to find their own safe space within their passion. Our nearly 50 different clubs offer students the opportunity to pursue passions and become more involved in the school and local community.

[02:56:06] Just this year, we've added the Students Demand Action Club, an organization that is part of the Larger For Every Town Gun Safety, a non-partisan group that advocates for gun safety. We've developed the Shelter Club, Supporting the Homeless, Every Little Thing Encourages Recovery, a group that aims to create awareness and to provide supplies and resources to those in need.

[02:56:30] We've developed the Women's Empowerment Club, an organization that offers healthy, constructive conversations about women's rights and facilitates fundraisers and campaigns on behalf of women's welfare internationally, and the Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America, a career and technical student organization offering opportunities for students to apply skills learned in the family, consumer, and sciences classroom with a specific focus on the culinary and hospitality industries.

[02:57:02] Daily, our homeroom announcement slides inspire cultural awareness through the Cultures Club information presentations and encourage environmentally responsible actions through the Green Team's practical suggestions for everyday living.

[02:57:17] Our Student Library Advisory Board offers various market space activities that promote thinking and crafting outside the box. Our DECA program has worked to educate students as well, working in conjunction with the Children's National Hospital Brainy Camps to create monthly awareness of various chronic health issues that may be impacting our peers and involving the student body to showcase their support.

[02:57:40] This DECA program also recently honored seven student winners who placed in various categories in the District Leadership Conference in December. Also in December, our Viking Theater program performed a heartfelt production of the relevant romantic comedy, Almost, mained by John Karani.

[02:57:59] And our adaptive arts and musical theater students spread cheer and joy by caroling in the classrooms in the final days before winter break. In November, our award-winning band and color guard program sent two specifically invited students to participate in the Great American Marching Band, earning a spot in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

[02:58:20] Our school-wide talents are also showcased weekly throughout Valley's Got Talent, an open invitation show style Friday morning session that includes student music, theater, and poetry. Overall, the strength and leadership of our student body has been showcased through our school's active programs, including NHS, SEA, LVSI, and PEER.

[02:58:43] The student leaders in these organizations have cultivated a sense of community and encouraged acts of citizenship throughout the rest of the student body. Loudoun Valley students have become active contributors to the local and school community throughout food drives, clothing collections, and outreach to our feeder and elementary schools.

[02:59:01] As I prepare to play football at Old Dominion University in the fall, I'll be sad to leave behind the community and the many friends I've made. But I look forward to having the values that Valley ingrained in me guide me throughout my academic and athletic career. Loudoun Valley is a community that offers the pursuit of passions and a supportive environment.

[02:59:21] As a member of this community, I've been challenged in ways that have pushed me to exceed my own expectations, both on the field and in the classroom.

[02:59:38] And finally tonight, we have Ashley Coates. Ashley is the student school board representative for William Obadiah Robey High School. She is from the Dominican Republic, and her first language is Spanish. Coming to the United States changed Ashley's life completely because she had to learn a new language in a very short time and learn to adapt to the educational system here.

[03:00:03] Ashley has been living in the United States for a year and a half. Ashley says, My English right now is not the best, but every day I try to make an effort to learn and improve. I like to strive for what I really want in life. Some of the skills that represent me are creativity, good memory, and responsibility.

[03:00:22] One of Ashley's biggest dreams is to become an obstetrician nurse because she loves taking care of children and wants to learn everything about them. Ashley will give her student comments in English and then in Spanish. Hello, my name is Ashley Cokes.

[03:00:39] I'm a 10 William Ovea-Robee High School. Thank you, school board chair, Mr. Trapkin, and all school board members who invited me to speak today. Robey is a school that offers many opportunities to students. She's graduating faster, economic health, and whatever you need.

[03:00:59] She's food, clothing, gift cards, baby things, and medical aid. The most important thing they offer is flexible schedules. Students prefer flexible schedules because most of them do not have a time to go to the school because they have many responsibilities, like children, work, or living alone.

[03:01:25] Robbie allows students to work full-time. One of the most difficult experiences of my life was trying to adapt to the school system and having to learn a new language in a short time.

[03:01:41] I have been in the United States for one year. Thanks to Robby and their help and learning a lot and they give me the opportunity to graduate this year. For us, Robby is our safe place where we learn every day how to solve the problems, communication and teamwork.

[03:02:04] At Robby, we are a family because we support each other to be better every day. The students feel like a family with the teachers and all support staff when it comes to study because they feel a lot of pressure and feel comfortable and confident with the teachers.

[03:02:27] We unlearn faster since the classes are smaller and the teachers are more attentive to each student doing well in their classes and we have a lot of support from the teachers. Thank you to the school board for giving me the opportunity to speak here tonight.

[03:02:49] Thank you for building Robbie and making graduation possible for our students. English is my second language I'm learning this year. Now, I will deliver this speech in my first language, Spanish. Hola, mi nombre es Ashley Coase y asisto a la escuela secundaria William Obedia Roby.

[03:03:11] Gracias al presidente de la Junta Escolar, el señor Serov Kim. Gracias a todos los miembros de la Junta Escolar que me invitaron a hablar hoy aquí. Roby es una escuela que ofrece muchas oportunidades a los alumnos.

[03:03:27] Como graduarse más rápido, ayuda económica en todo lo que necesites, como comida, ropa, tarjeta de regalos, cosas para bebés, seguro de vida y asistencia médica. Lo más importante que ofrece son los horarios flexibles.

[03:03:45] Los estudiantes prefieren horarios flexibles porque la mayoría de ellos no tienen tiempo para ir a la escuela porque tienen muchas responsabilidades, como los hijos, el trabajo o vivir solos. Robby permite que los estudiantes trabajen a tiempo completo.

[03:04:04] Una de las experiencias más difíciles de mi vida fue tratar de adaptarme al sistema escolar y tener que aprender un nuevo idioma en tan poco tiempo. He estado en los Estados Unidos durante un año. Gracias a Robby y a su ayuda, aprendí mucho y me dieron la oportunidad de graduarme este año.

[03:04:24] Para nosotros, Robby es nuestro lugar seguro donde aprendemos todos los días a resolver problemas, comunicarnos y trabajar en equipo. En Rovis somos una familia porque nos apoyamos para ser mejores cada día.

[03:04:42] Los alumnos se sienten como en familia con los profesores y todo el personal de apoyo a la hora de estudiar, porque sienten menos presión y se sienten cómodos y confiados con los profesores. Aprendemos más rápido ya que las clases son más pequeñas y los profesores están más atentos a que cada alumno le vaya bien en sus clases

[03:05:37] I want to thank all three of our student school board representatives again for their comments tonight and look forward to welcoming them back again at our meeting on February 28th. With that, we'll move to item 10 on our agenda, the advisory committee update from the minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee and so I will invite Miss Bush to come up to the podium

[03:05:57] good all right good evening everyone all right my name is Talia Bush I'm here to give the update for Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee next slide we'll just see a general overview of

[03:06:35] our agenda fairly brief we're going to go through our mission statement the executive board and roles that we play our meetings our policy review process and then a status update on our annual report next slide okay I feel like it's important to always go over our mission statement for those who are in the room who may not be familiar with MSAC the minority student achievement Advisory Committee is dedicated to partnering with Loudoun County Public Schools parents and the

[03:07:11] community to acknowledge and promote the needs of minority students so at this point I want to just pause briefly to to be clarify some things I want to talk about minority students we're really talking about historically marginalized students so it's not really numbers that we're talking about when we talk about the needs we're referring to the ways in which minority or marginalized students their status or factors stemming from it might just been disadvantaged these students and keep them from reaching their potential so this doesn't assume that by being a minority that you automatically have some disability it's just acknowledging that historically there have been some

[03:07:47] injustices and we try to remedy those things through different means so the rest of the mission statement reads MIMSAC is also dedicated to building a school system that is culturally and socially competent and positioned to provide fair and equitable learning experiences for all students the second aspect of our mission is concerned with the learning environment itself and how we can support leadership and parents so that all children have the same opportunities to grow and thrive and we see how those opportunities just by the young people who spoke today you know the capabilities of our students we want every student of every race and every category to be able to come up and speak

[03:08:27] the way those children spoke it was very very inspiring and it really warmed my heart to see that we want all students to have that and when we mean when we talk about equitable environment we're talking about equitable admission or equitable admissions requirements for schools like academies of loud and discipline disproportionality and diverse hiring practices among other things next slide all right so here we have our executive board those are our primary executive board members and we support 75 delegates across 63 schools

[03:09:03] each year our delegates are briefed on brief to ensure that they have a clear understanding of our mission its history and challenges that our students face and how they can deal with those challenges so we have ongoing training and we position MSAC to make sure that our delegates are supported so each of them as they have challenges we float up their issues to our membership chair who is now trained to kind of triage issues as they come up as they come up we also help them understand the basis of advocacy and schools and what's been done in the past so we share best practices many of our delegates who

[03:09:41] support MSAC currently work in environments where they too face barriers to success at work. Part of our job is to empower them with tools and encourage them to navigate issues. And the reason I'm telling you this is because I want you to understand the context that many of our parents come into when they enter MSAC. We have to basically prepare them for the work that we do. And when they're up to speed they provide consultation and feedback to schools and the division. So this year we were proud to have one of our delegates be chosen to represent MSAC for the reading focus group and she also provide

[03:10:18] culturally responsive feedback that was very helpful next slide please so here's just a few billets on our roles and responsibilities across our advisory board and our advisory board consists of our executive board which you just saw as well as our delegates so one of the things we do is we provide resources to ensure a broad broad awareness of the resources in their schools and across the division we provide policy feedback and we we solicit feedback from each delegate so what you all see when we those of you who are in different

[03:10:56] subcommittees is the totality of comments that we get from each delegate to make sure that our responses are cohesive we also connect families and students with information and resources again within the schools and across the community and we facilitate open dialogue and our general body meetings okay next slide all right so this is a specific to what we've done in the current school year the the topics and the things that we have looked at so far and again with an eye towards really preparing parents and the community for

[03:11:34] advocacy specifically and collectively as a group so they're not just informative presentations they're really just to make sure that as problems arise they don't always come to MSAC sometimes they go other places but we want to make sure that either parents or staff whoever is in our meetings or attending otherwise online know how to advocate for their student okay and and I want you to also be aware that many parents and I've spoken to many parents in my well this is my second year here they don't report incidents of racism so

[03:12:12] it's very similar to rape sometimes they're intimidated sometimes they feel hopeless sometimes they feel as if they're not going to get any support because again we're talking about very sensitive situations we're talking about children this is a heart matter so I want you to be aware that a lot of the work that we do really is focused to the parents now we'll definitely talk to you guys as well you know you guys are approving policy you guys have a very important role as well and we acknowledge that we're an advisory committee to the school board but we also recognize that our members are very much a part of the work that we do so here you see several of our meetings our

[03:12:51] last meeting was very successful I was very happy to have Pastor Michelle Thomas come in and report on Virginia SOLs for history and social studies and a few of the members actually went down to Richmond and reported you know their personal thoughts to the the board there and gave their feedback and I felt that was a big win for us tomorrow we'll hear from our interim superintendent Mr. Smith and you know Slevin since they took office we'll also hear from students in our affinity groups and the Stavitz excuse me status of efforts to relieve discipline disparities from the Office of Student Services and Administration

[03:13:29] next slide please okay so here are all the policies that we have reviewed so far this year 41 total including three policy guidance documents and here on the right you'll see really what we're drilling down in terms of our focus areas so in terms of clarity we're really looking to remove the possibility of misinterpretation or ambiguity or any underlying assumptions we're looking for the benefits of changes realizing that some are more critical than others we're also looking at areas of practical application for all students as well as

[03:14:09] those that are geared towards our focus areas and those that align with the strategic plan so we want to make sure that the policies are updated with those things in mind and then obviously we want to see accountability for violations some of the policy language that we're looking at really lacks accountability so that's something that we're really taking a close look at and we'd like for you guys to do that as well and then we're also looking at administrative areas like cross-references next slide okay so our annual report is something

[03:14:45] that we are working on to get to you guys very shortly we're looking at a late February early March delivery and these are really the areas that you're going to see uh just a general table of context it might change a little here there but the main thing that we want to do is focus on the recommendations for each of you mr mehedevi last time i think it was the first time that we spoke you asked what are you what are your recommendations for us and so i really took that to heart and we really kind of looked across different documents and different things that have taken place over the years to say okay really what do we want to see you know again comprehensively not just one

[03:15:22] onesie twosie but really when we talk to you we want to kind of have a specific list and so some things that we've come up to come up with excuse me our recurring equity updates of the climate so I think the last was in 2019 we want things like that to continue we don't want just a one-and-done the strategic plan does not take the place of continual assessments of the climate within LCPS we also want clear accountability measures at the strategic level it's detailing how this work will get done so we really are we're talking milestones specific to eliminating change again the strategic plan does not address that and then again the comprehensive equity plan evaluation of

[03:16:02] report the one lot of strategic plan those things we see in the report that there there's there's work to be done and we really want a clear pathway to success for those areas okay last slide okay so this is our LCPS division-wide equity statement and I've really just kind of clipped some pieces that I want to read in your hearing and it says LCPS centers equity as one of its foundational core values equity is a vehicle that leads to greater access opportunity and equality so that each student is empowered to make meaningful

[03:16:38] contributions to the world of course we were revisiting this statement because earlier this month we were very disappointed when two of your board members voted against equity in our budget and I don't need to remind you that the comprehensive equity evaluation report still has very several outstanding issues that need to need to be addressed so we really want to see work done in that area as long as there are nooses on school grounds as long as there's graffiti in bathrooms as long as children are calling for policies that

[03:17:14] punish others for using the n-word we're seeing fights on school grounds that erupt because of racial strife we really have to tamp down on this issue so you know I'm appealing to you all work with us as we again see this and your report come through we really want to start dialoguing in earnest about this issue and see if we can come up with some real some real solutions so equity is really it's non-negotiable there's a core value that you know LCPS has embraced the community has embraced it and although we may disagree with how

[03:17:53] to implement it we can talk about best practices around equity but it's something that we definitely need to work towards so that's all I have thank you board members do you have any comments or questions regarding the presentation miss Rieser thank you mr. chair thank you miss Bush I just wanted to first thank you for the presentation tonight but also we've had some conversations where you've advocated for some of the issues you raised tonight there's a lot to unpack so I'm just going to talk about a couple of things I was really surprised to hear you say that I am surprised and not surprised to

[03:18:32] hear you say that there are a lot of racial incidents that are going unreported because we have so many daily reports and to know that there are more that we're not hearing about is both disconcerting and and and I appreciate the fact that you're letting us know that it's something that we should be aware of that even though there is a way to report this to us that people still don't feel comfortable doing so the other thing I wanted to touch on was your focus area regarding LCPS policy review you have had robust engagement I know from the committees that I chair and the committees that I sit on you all

[03:19:09] are doing a lot of work that's very helpful to have that perspective and so please extend our gratitude for that to the committee members who are volunteering your time and and I hope you know it is actually really helpful so thank you for the presentation tonight thanks for your personal engagement and please keep up the good work we really appreciate the partnership absolutely thank you thank you mr. Morse thank you mr. chair miss Bush I wanted to thank you as well and I as we're looking at the feedback that that mr. Easer mentioned I'd like to

[03:19:46] know what your interpretation is of how how we are applying your feedback into the policy process because what I've heard in the past is that the school board didn't listen to the inputs that were provided we weren't making changes are you seeing more changes in the policy do you believe that your committee is having an impact on the final product that we're producing so yes and no when I say yes I'm seeing that we're having more dialogue and there seems to be no more negotiation in in terms especially policy 2310 I think that there was there was definitely some some good feedback there but there was another

[03:20:24] policy I believe it was I don't know 8215 that had to do with discipline practices we put a lot of work into that policy and our feedback did not make it there that was a huge issue as well as I believe that there was some other issues stemming from the way the form is designed so people who are not necessarily a part of MSAC were able to actually toggle down and then provide feedback on MSAC's behalf and we don't want there to be intermixing of views that are not specific to MSAC so we've actually spoken to Neil Slevin and some others on that we're happy to forward that feedback to you we want you all to

[03:21:01] know that again we are paying attention to these things and we want to understand not just the policy process but even you know how we can provide better feedback so I think there was one specific area where there's maybe Virginia Code around language so we ask that you like itemize those areas so that we don't give feedback on areas that are you know pulled language from you know other documents so those types of areas of feedback that we had a discussion about and be happy to share that with you because we really want to make sure that you know we're protecting these students through these documents

[03:21:36] thank you for the question Mr. Morris. Additional questions? Ms. Okadugbe. Thank you. I'm muted. And I apologize. There's some echo. I think that's better. But I look forward to meeting with you. I wanted to thank you for this presentation tonight and look forward also to reading the reports that you're putting together. Thank you for your work.

[03:22:12] Mr. Mahedby. Thank you, Chair. Ms. Bush, I think I'm looking forward to your annual report in March. So thank you. Any additional questions or comments? Ms. Corbo. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you so much for this presentation.

[03:22:31] I concur with a lot of what you said about not only coming up with recommendations, but seeing through what action are we going to be taking. And I know in listening to this report, a lot of what you have said does piggyback or align with also what the work that the equity committee is doing as well.

[03:22:51] and um and i have recently been assigned to that committee so um so i look forward to um to working in in collaboration with you and also the equity committee so that we can actually see some action items um presented um based on the the information feedback that we that we received so thank you so much thank you additional questions seeing none thank you again for your report and we look forward to the next one thank you with that we'll move to item 11 on the agenda the

[03:23:25] public hearing for an abbreviated elementary school attendance zone change process we have i've been notified by staff that we have no speakers signed up so that will conclude the public hearing we'll now move to item 12 on the agenda public comment thank you for engaging with the school board through the public comment process the school board welcomes comments from louden county residents and believes that strong community engagement and outreach are important components of a successful school system speakers must limit comments to the time allotted based on the number of speakers tonight and the agenda this evening all speakers have

[03:24:02] been allotted one minute each for public comment please be advised that speakers who missed their time slot will not be called at a later time all audience members shall maintain the civility decorum and respect for the functioning and dignity of the school board at all times please remain seated unless arriving departing speaking at the podium or during a break violations of civility decorum and respect include shouting heckling jeering applause or other noise which disrupts or delays the meeting obstructing speakers from being able to see the school board and vice versa interrupting speakers attempting to speak when not called to do so by the chair

[03:24:40] and approaching a speaker or otherwise attempting to intimidate disparage or distract a speaker staff member or other meeting attendees speakers should refrain from vulgarity obscenities profanity or other like breaches of respect nor may speakers target criticize or attack individual students during public comment speakers should communicate those concerns to their school principal or an appropriate to their school principal or an appropriate school official additionally complaints regarding division employees should be directed to the school principal or an appropriate school

[03:25:15] division official speakers should face the dais and direct their comments to the school board per For LCPS policy, members of the school board will not answer questions or respond directly to the public during the public comment period. Violations of decorum or civility by any meeting attendee may result in the chair directing staff to remove the attendee from the remainder of the meeting.

[03:25:38] Repeated or persistent violations of decorum or civility by the audience may result in, on the decision of the chair, public comment being tabled until a later point in the meeting's agenda limiting the number of attendees in the meeting room during public comment for safety reasons or the public comment period ending for the evening copies of materials for board members should be given to the public information officer in the media box at the back of the boardroom prior to the start of the meeting please provide 12 copies of materials under no circumstances may a speaker approach the dais the public is reminded that access to school board meetings is available

[03:26:16] through lcps tv on comcast channel 18 and verizon fios channel 43 the live stream of the meeting may be viewed on the lcps website tonight we will begin with our in-person speakers the first speaker is trufilia parker to be followed by renard parker on february 2nd i traveled to richmond to provide

[03:26:53] public comment in support of the proposed collaborative social studies standards at the video board meeting i was saddened to learn on my way back that the board voted in favor of the January standards proposed by the Youngin administration standards with known flaws inaccuracies and blatant omissions of historic facts about individuals and occurrences by black and brown and other minorities. I'm here today as part of the Black History Month teach-in to reiterate to this board and this community the importance of accurate and comprehensive representation in Virginia's social studies curriculums. Booker T. Washington, born a slave in Virginia, was an American educator, author, orator, and advisor to several

[03:27:30] presidents of the United States. Later he founded Tuskegee Institute and now Tuskegee University. My husband and I are graduates of that esteemed school and teach the rich heritage and traditions to our two sons. I feel strongly that the LCPS social studies curriculum must be representative of a full and developmentally appropriate telling of history in preparation for an increasingly diverse and complex world. Black history is American history.

[03:27:54] Thank you. Renard Parker to be followed by Reginald Parker II. Hi, my name is Bernard Parker, and I'm going to be talking about Muhammad Ali.

[03:28:13] Muhammad Ali was a professional boxer and activist. He won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at 1960 Summer Olympics. In 1967, he was convicted of draft evasion. He was sentenced to five years in prison and fined $10,000.

[03:28:31] He was banned from boxing for three years. After refusing induction into the United States Armed Forces due to religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam, those events promoted racial pride for African Americans in resistance to white domination during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.

[03:28:56] He is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures in the 20th century. Muhammad Ali is ranked as the greatest athlete of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality on Century by the BBC. Black history is an American history.

[03:29:12] Thank you. Reginald Parker II to be followed by Reginald Parker. Hi, my name is Reginald Parker, and I'll be talking about Mary Jackson.

[03:29:29] Mary Jackson was a NASA human computer in 1951 in the West Computers area. She was one of the most national figures to be known as the first African-American engineer in Virginia.

[03:29:47] She was known because she was the first woman to ever create Federal Women's Program Manager in the Office of the Equal Opportunities Program. In 2016, the story of Mary Jackson, Capron Johnson, and Dorothy Vaughan was told in the box office mass hidden figures.

[03:30:09] NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. was recently named after Mary Jackson, Black History is American History. Thank you. Reginald Parker to be followed by Sandy Sullivan. Good evening. My name is Reginald Parker, active parent and active member of Sigma Mu Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity here in Lyton County.

[03:30:34] Today I'll be talking about Dr. Carter Goodwin Woodson, historian, creator of Black History Month in 1915, often referred to as the father of black history. He was notably the second African American to graduate from Harvard University with a doctorate degree and is credited with being one of the first scholars to study and research history of African Americans.

[03:30:58] His tremendous commitment led to the enactment of Black History Month since 1976. Black history is American history. Thank you. Sandy Sullivan to be followed by Cheryl Ondertane. Good evening. I'm Sandy Sullivan, an elementary school teacher who currently serves the members of the Loudoun Education Association as their president.

[03:31:27] LEA's letter of certification stating that 51% of licensed employees have signed authorization cards indicating they want the Loudoun Education Association to be their bargaining agent was received by LCPS on January 31st. This triggers the deadline for the school board to vote on a resolution regarding engaging in collective bargaining with your employees by May 31st.

[03:31:47] your employees need to be at the heart of decision making for our students and colleagues we are looking to use school board members decisions are constantly made with deeply impact our students educators know students we know their names we know their needs and we fight for them collective bargaining brings that critical knowledge to the table decisions are constantly made with deeply impact our colleagues our voices are important our voices are needed our voices must be heard and collective bargaining brings those crucial voices to the table.

[03:32:25] Thank you. Cheryl Anderchain to be followed by Meredith Ray. Say no to collective bargaining. LEA equals VEA equals NEA. NEA and AFT and the K-12 cartel are single-handedly responsible for the poor state of government education today. FOIA emails show the heads of these powerful unions colluded with both the CDC as well as the Biden administration to lock our kids out of school for more than a year, resulting in still unaddressed and unprecedented learning

[03:33:04] loss for an entire generation of kids. Teachers unions essentially held children's education hostage so they could secure multi-billion dollar ransom payments from us, the taxpayers. Why Loudon would want to be associated with an organization like the NEA that has such a massive black eye right now is beyond me. We do not need public sector unions. Schools exist to educate children. They are not jobs programs. Also, release the report. Thank you. Meredith Ray to

[03:33:39] be followed by Jan Merker. Jan Merker to be followed by Christine Condi. Did you know that a whopping 40% of books banned in the U.S. last year had a protagonist or secondary character of color according to a pen america study did you know that tony morrison's beloved was one of the catalysts for glenn youngkin censorship initiatives because a high school senior who elected to take

[03:34:15] a college level ap english class didn't want to read about the horrors of slavery did you know that madison county virginia recently banned four books by tony morrison including the bluest eye As this board begins its revision of Policy 5045, I urge you to reject book bans.

[03:34:36] Intellectual freedom is the best way to maintain academic excellence. Thank you. Christine Condi to be followed by Tanya Bledsoe. Lift every voice and sing till the earth and heaven ring. Ring with the harmonies of liberty.

[03:35:01] Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies. Let it resound as loud as the rolling sea. Lift Every Voice and Sing is known as the Black National Anthem and was written by American civil rights advocate James Weldon Johnson and set to music by his brother, J. Rosamund Johnson. Written from the context of African Americans in the 19th century, the hymn is a prayer of thanksgiving, faithfulness, and freedom with imagery which evokes the biblical exodus from slavery to the freedom of the promised land. Mr. Johnson was a leader of the NAACP, and in 1934 became the first African-American professor at NYU. Fast forward to

[03:35:38] Virginia in 2023, where the Yunkin administration and the State Board of Education continues their attempt to whitewash American history and our school's history standards. I implore this school board to stand with educators who are fighting back. Downplaying the role of marginalized groups in history is not the accurate teaching of history. Lift every voice, Black Lives Matter.

[03:36:00] Thank you. Tanya Bledsoe to be followed by Elizabeth Boyko. Elizabeth Boyko to be followed by Suzanne Satterfield. Your terms on this board are coming to a close. Hard to believe we are in 2023, but here we are. For most of you, your current terms have been tumultuous and damaging to your reputations and your legacies. It's been scandal after scandal, including the ridiculous and unnecessary extended closure of schools and the extended force masking of children.

[03:36:38] Your time here is not up yet, though. It is not too late to do one thing right for those you were elected to serve. You have the opportunity tonight to end the secrecy and the non-transparency around the biggest scandal and to let the truth be known, whatever it may be. It is past time to release the report from the independent investigation to those whom it belongs, the public. If you vote no, particularly those of you who said you supported releasing it, you will be letting us know you are protecting yourselves and LCPS over the safety of students. Choose wisely, have courage, stop hiding, stop lying.

[03:37:12] Suzanne Satterfield, to be followed by Brenda Begson. Two minutes was deserved tonight. Sage's mother communicated with her school about her mental struggles. Sage wanted to be an emo after seeing other girls at school.

[03:37:31] Her mother wasn't concerned because she thought it was a phase that would pass. This progressed farther at school without her parents' knowledge. She used a boy's name, pronouns, the boy's bathroom. She was arrested at school, including in the boy's bathroom.

[03:37:47] Sage's parents were never notified. She ran away and was sex trafficked. It's a miracle she's alive. She looks back and realizes she only wanted to be a boy to make friends. I had the honor of meeting Sage's mom in Richmond yesterday as I spoke in support of Sage's law to halt schools from keeping secret from parents.

[03:38:07] All you school board members, stop keeping secrets and vote to release the independent report. Any vote that you care more about that's, besides supporting this, shows that you are protecting adults and ideologies, not children. Thank you.

[03:38:24] Brenda Bengston to be followed by Andrew Pihonek. In a world so full of color, why would I choose to be colorblind?

[03:38:40] Valen Turner. Colorblindness first surfaced in the 60s when the language of civil rights leaders was twisted to make racist rhetoric more palatable. Saying we should be judged only on qualifications served Jim Crow well, since whites already benefited from qualifications and power.

[03:39:01] But Louis Armstrong's Wonderful World says, The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky, are also on the faces of people going by. Ballin Turner says, The last thing you want to do when it comes to race is erase the things that make us unique.

[03:39:19] Erase what we see staring back at us. It's not about not seeing color. It's about celebrating it and raising the voices of black authors, black activists, black leaders, black heritage, black existence. See color 24-7-365.

[03:39:37] Thank you. Andrew Pihonak to be followed by Anthony Simeno Johnson. Good evening. Hate speech and violent symbols are running rampant in public schools right now. Ms. Sheridan, I commend you for your hard work on the equity committee.

[03:39:54] It really is special. But a lot of hateful symbols will be drawn on bathroom stalls in the next month. I urge the entire board to look into this issue while the equity committee does their hard work so we can get to the root of this as quickly as possible and make some much-needed changes. Hate speech leads to hate-induced violence.

[03:40:11] Also, a really dangerous motion was made by my representative, Mr. Beatty, and seconded by Broadrun's Ms. Polifco, and I commend the board for striking the motion to eliminate DEI positions down. There is no equality without equity, and as Ms. Bush so gracefully said, equity is non-negotiable.

[03:40:27] I also see there's an action item, 1401, regarding the grand jury recommendations. please for everyone's sake we release the report so we can move forward and work on solutions to be proactive and not reactive thank you thank you anthony simon o johnson to be followed by daniel brubaker this time last year this board made history your vote for fine art stipends was not only life-changing but life-saving you listened to boots on the ground the educators and trusted that we knew what we needed both in and out of the classroom today i ask you to do the

[03:41:06] same, this time for collective bargaining. The majority of the teachers support the unionization of LEA. We need a stronger voice and a better seat at the table in order to meet the needs of our students and families. Collective bargaining isn't just a union, it is a life-changing and life-saving opportunity that sits before all of you. Say yes to LEA's resolution. In honor of Black History Month, I'd like to read a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold

[03:41:43] struggles in economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute, and above all new wage levels. Thank you. Please vote. Daniel Brubaker to be followed by Michelle Warner. So-called collective bargaining is not a value added to LCPS or to the taxpayers of Loudoun County. The LEA is a big business that seeks to siphon millions of dollars from the hard-working taxpayers of Loudoun County. And what will we get

[03:42:22] for it better schools absolutely not a more positive working environment no way more value for our tax dollars never teachers unions always create an adversarial situation in the workplace in a healthy school system administration and teachers are on the same team and working toward the same goal the well-being of kids unions introduce a climate of hate and division into any workplace training teachers and staff to view and treat administration as enemies such an environment is toxic is not good for the people in the workplace and is certainly not good for the kids as a parent and tax taxpayer i respectfully ask that you reject the proposal to allow lea's culture of harm hate and division to infect lcps we do not need collective bargaining

[03:43:02] it will cost us millions of dollars a year while giving us nothing in return don't do it thank you thank you michelle warner to be followed by todd simino johnson good evening when you vote tonight i ask you vote yes to release the internal report it's time for the school board and the administration to take accountability for what happened through transparency and honesty also you need to fire falcone ellis and plin they are fully culpable on the cover-up and need to be punished i'm going to skip real quick here regarding the naming of the middle schools under action item 15 i believe you

[03:43:38] should let the parents of the students in each school vote on whether or not to redeem the schools you should present the why and how much it will cost and let a vote happen commissioning a group to dig up something racist and spending tax dollars to name the school as a farce and while John Mercer followed the social norms of his time you cannot argue that he did great things for all the year the state of Virginia this board has the fiduciary responsibility of the students parents and taxpayers of Laban County being a member of this board's bind you legally and ethically to use the money allocated to our schools in the best possible manner as a parent I'm tired of you guys

[03:44:15] blaming us for noticing things that are wrong and being addressed in our schools quite frankly you should be happy and embrace the fact you have parents that care. Thank you. Todd Simeno-Johnson to be followed by Lucy Salazzo. Teachers show up to teach students and do a wonderful job.

[03:44:36] Teachers work more hours than their contract. We also expect teachers to be coaches, therapists, IT, use their own money and be a friend, and sometimes a surrogate parent, all while planning, organizing, learning, attending meetings, meeting parents, and testing student knowledge.

[03:44:52] When do teachers have time to negotiate a contract, benefits, pay, standards, or curriculum? We already asked more from our teachers than we should. This is where collective bargaining is important. For a job that is so important, the teachers need a strong voice that can advocate their needs. I live with a teacher.

[03:45:07] I have watched as administrators in this very building bullied him and threatened his job multiple times. It is now documented that LCPS is a culture of fear and retaliation, and I know this firsthand. Saying yes to collective bargaining can protect people like my husband and the thousands of teachers in the system.

[03:45:24] Teachers were my mentors and those I looked up to most growing up. is important that we protect our teachers vote for collective bargaining and release the grand jury report thank you thank you lucy salazzo to be followed by philip wood eyes as a teacher and mother in loudon i'd like to ask the board to deny collective bargaining collective bargaining will reduce the quality of this county school even further this bargaining has a teacher focus only lands and neglect students in the long run lea is an arm of the nea which is also an arm of the DNC. Collective bargaining will be used to pass Democrat-biased, union-friendly ideas

[03:46:04] onto the school board, staff, students, and ultimately forced onto the public. The LEA supported lockdowns, masking children, endless equity meetings, and did nothing about the challenge coin. I understand it's a personal choice to pay into a teachers' union such as the LEA, but I support saying no to collective bargaining and for teachers to look into other organizations, such as the VPE or the Virginia Professional Educators Association. They do not involve themselves with politics.

[03:46:31] - Thank you. Please refrain from applause during public comment. Thank you. Philip Woodeyes to be followed by Tumei Harding. - Online tuition services are a useless idea for elementary kids.

[03:46:47] So was it a good idea to pay 1.65 million on tutor.com, costing a massive $650 per student? Why was tutor needed in the first place when Bill Gates Khan Academy is a free service?

[03:47:03] What due diligence was undertaken before contracting tutor? Did Fairfax's decision influence you? Dr. Ashley Ellis told me we used COVID funds. Why was that justification?

[03:47:20] Going forward, younger kids need extra face-to-face time, private teaching, after-school teaching. Now you scrap tutor for $1.65 million. Is that money going to pay for a student private teacher in-person service?

[03:47:36] or for overtime pay for existing LCPS teachers to put on extra class after school. Thank you. To Mae Harding, to be followed by Julia Holcomb. Two months ago, I spoke to you about my challenges with the Title IX office.

[03:47:58] I asked you for your help. My daughter and her friends were sexually harassed and assaulted by a teacher. We learned through our own investigation that allegations were brought against this teacher by another victim two years prior that resulted in a no-contact order against him. Despite four accusations, the first one especially severe, this teacher has been on paid lead for 11 months.

[03:48:19] I have spoken out repeatedly yet received no follow-up from my board member, Mr. Mahadavi. I met with the ombudsman, the head of HR, and even tried to speak with the interim superintendent about the major failures of the Title IX office and LCPS policies around sexual assaults.

[03:48:35] While they were sympathetic to our situation and admitted to the shortcomings of the process, They have continued to fail my daughter and the other victims as they try to figure out what to do. We have not heard a word in two months from anyone. My daughter and the other victims deserve better from you. The grand jury concurs that you should do better, yet your reckless indifference to safety and transparency remains.

[03:48:56] We as parents are crying out for help, but we are being dismissed. For 11 months, the Title IX office, HRA superintendent's office, has focused solely on protecting the school. Ma'am, you're out of order. Please yield the microphone to the next speaker. Ma'am, you are out of order.

[03:49:13] If you don't yield the microphone, you'll be asked to leave. Thank you. Julia Holcomb, to be followed by Carrie Sandler. I understand that instructional materials and policy 5045 are going to be under discussion.

[03:49:35] According to Loudon Now, Atissa Reeser has suggested looking at what Fairfax County is doing, although a Facebook comment on Ms. Polofko's page rejects that suggestion. Deputies who pretended Ashley Ellis says that they've followed the Department of Education lockstep.

[03:49:51] That's a quote. That's a lousy idea. The governor has shown by word and deed that there's someone he is emulating, and that someone is former President Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis. Pictures out of Duval County show shelves of books wrapped in yellow caution tape, while a cumbersome vetting process holds up school library collections.

[03:50:12] I urge the school board to strike its own path in deciding how to comply with 5045 and how to address challenges to library materials. And I urge them to be as open and as inclusive as possible their decision making. Remember that a good education expands, not limits the range of ideas which children are exposed to. And remember that the people burning books are never the good guys. Thank you. Thank you. Carrie Sandler to be followed by Edward Pizzarello. Four out of ten students who formally reported sexual abuse to their high schools experienced substantial

[03:50:50] disruption in their educations. That's according to a survey from Know Your Title IX. While I cannot say for certain that that statistic applies to LCPS, I can say for sure that that is why my friend's daughter went from a straight-A sophomore to barely graduating due to failing grades and poor attendance. It's why she was in a psychiatric hospital after wanting to take her own life. My friend's daughter finally came forward to share that her high school science teacher touched her inappropriately and made her feel so ashamed and uncomfortable that she never wanted to go to school again. LCPS did not open a

[03:51:29] Title IX investigation as required by federal law. They only offered to open a Title IX investigation after additional girls came forward nearly two years later with allegations against the same teacher. Please help. Thank you. Edward Pizzarello to be followed by Brian Davison.

[03:51:51] Good evening. We are part of CLO6. It was affected by the recent rezoning and we are respectively asking that the board grandfather existing residents in CLO6 who attend both Simpson N County to graduate from Loudoun County High School. Our small group of parents is willing to provide transportation for our kids. I think there are two key points to consider. One is capacity. We understand that capacity is a key issue at the school. CL06 represents currently a number that we believe is somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 children, which is also

[03:52:26] significantly under the number that staff represents. This is due to the 2016 rezoning where a number of children went to Woodgrove through that path. The second thing I would note is that the special permission process is an onerous one. As the parent of a 7th grade, rising 7th grader, we've been instructed that we should speak with Smart's Mill to address the course selections that our child needs for dyslexia, that we can't speak to Simpson because they don't control his schedule until he runs through the special permission process.

[03:52:56] Thank you. Thank you. Brian Davison to be followed by Kate O'Hara. Good evening, and thank you for allowing me to speak at the Church of LCPS tonight.

[03:53:13] Minister Sorokton, you were quoted in the newspaper as having, based on FOIAs, emailed Kelly Herring Sullivan, congratulate her when she called speakers here Christian bigots. Doesn't that violate your hate speech code? Are you now discriminating against other religions?

[03:53:33] We heard from the sexual assault cases here. Recently, a teacher who had sex with her student was charged and then won a suit for malicious prosecution, even though her attorney admits that she could never be a teacher again. Elementary school teacher Andrew Bango is online defending him, defending the teachers.

[03:53:56] It appears that your elementary teachers want kids to be able to have prey. And speaking of the legacy show by High Priestess Ellis over here, their math scores these past few years have gone from 500 to 450. And their advanced pass rates from 50 to 23.

[03:54:12] Is this some kind of a joke, Ellis? Kate O'Hara to be followed by Colin Doniger. Colin Doniger to be followed by Megan Caton.

[03:54:28] Good evening. I don't have a whole lot to say. I just want to tell you, don't let releasing this report by Blankenship and Keith be a partisan thing. It doesn't need to be. You don't want to be on the side that says that the partisan side is to cover up a report that shows proof of a cover-up of a rape.

[03:54:51] That's not something that I would want to be behind, and if it is, I would maybe want to reevaluate my position. So I just hope that we'll take all the politics out of this, and please release that report. And in regard to the folks that are up here talking about black history, black history is American history.

[03:55:08] Gender theory is not black history. Marxism is not black history. None of that is American. Thank you. Thank you. Megan Kytan to be followed by Kathy Ellen Davis. Mr. Menadavi, I'm your neighbor, and I remember when you came to my door to ask for my support when you first ran.

[03:55:31] I voted for you based on your commitment to provide a better experience for our children. Why did you not reach out to the Hardings after their daughter was assaulted? Since the State Attorney General stepped in to right the negligence and wrongs of serious sexual assaults committed in LCPS schools that were preventable based on early warnings from staff, you've allowed several new assaults to occur.

[03:55:53] Perpetrated by a teacher, you walked out for this reason and welcomed back to teach our children again at Stonebridge. A teacher you continue to pay while you fail to provide adequate Title IX protection and an education for at least one of the students who no longer feels safe enough to attend Stonebridge.

[03:56:10] She will never regain what she's lost. We've seen how this plays out before. Michigan State, Ohio State, the Catholic Church, we know those outcomes. You still have the authority and opportunity to choose students first.

[03:56:26] If there are other children, I hope they feel empowered to come forward. Thank you. Because they deserve justice. Kathy Ellen Davis, to be followed by Lawanda Taylor. Hi, thank you. I'm going to read from you the Humanity Archive, Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth.

[03:56:44] And it comes out in two weeks, so you should check it out. And I'm going to share about Dorothy Porter Wesley. She revolutionized how we learn about black history in America. In her long and prolific career from 1930 to 1995, she transformed the library from her desk at Howard University. When black history was only organized into only two categories, slavery and colonization, the enterprising librarian highlighted black people in every subject, literature, health and medicine, music, philosophy, mathematics, history, biology, religion, and other specific subject areas.

[03:57:13] With a shoestring budget and student staff, she amassed a collection of 18,000 items. When she began, there were only 3,000. A genius curator with an eye for the important, she saved irreplaceable history from the trash bin. Black history is American history. We should learn about it year-round.

[03:57:29] And gender has always existed in America, so gender is part of American history, too. Thank you. Thank you. Lawanda Taylor, to be followed by Scott Williamson. Good evening.

[03:57:47] Everyone in this room and most people around the world have at some point in their life purchased groceries that had to be transported in a refrigerated truck. We can thank Frederick McKinley Jones for designing a portable air cooling unit for trucks carrying perishable foods. Mr. Jones was a World War I veteran who received more than 60 patents related to refrigeration technology, x-ray machines, engines, and sound equipment. He became one of the founding partners of the Thermal Control Company, which helped to preserve food,

[03:58:25] blood, and medicine during World War II. He was also the first African-American elected to the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers because all of us benefit from Jones's inventions black history is American history Thank you. Thank you Scott Williamson to be followed by Kristen Washington. Thank you I'm here to ask you to consider

[03:59:00] grandfathering and rising sophomores at Lowndy County High School your current plan for rezoning already considers a large portion of grandfathering seniors, senior siblings, juniors, ROTC members that are already there. I'm asking you to extend that to this small portion of the kids to allow them to continue their high school career with the community they grew up in, with the community they live in. Right now, I live in CL06. There are 49 high school students. Only a quarter of those are rising sophomores. The rest are really considered for grandfathering juniors and sophomores. So we're really talking about something in the neighborhood of 10 kids. That's a very small percentage, a rounding error for

[03:59:37] Loudoun County High School I live in a community off of dry mill road with 50 houses only two of the kids aren't being grandfathered you're sending these two kids away from their across town to Tuscarora please do something to include them in the prior rezoning DN 09 was voted to be grandfathered in an iteration of the plan you guys have already considered this mr. Mahadavi had raised it and it was passed please consider for all our thank you Kristen Washington to be followed by Juan Pablo Segura. So I noticed that Ms. Reeser was recently endorsed by the LEA

[04:00:14] for her delegate run, which I thought was interesting since the LEA has brought forth collective bargaining, but you all have not yet voted on that. Seems to me like that would be a conflict of interest. So I looked up and you have policy 2160, conflict of interest and disclosure of economic interest. On section E, number one, subsection E, it says accept any money, loan, gift, favor, service, or business or professional opportunity that reasonably tends to influence him or her in the performance of his or her official duties. So I do believe that qualifies as a

[04:00:52] conflict of interest. I would also like to state that y'all need to include sexual assault prevention training for all LCPS employees, from the janitor to the superintendent. Release the report. Thank you. Juan Pablo Segura, to be followed by Michael Clancy. My name is Juan Pablo Segura, and I am simply a concerned citizen. Why am I concerned? Because this school board has become stagnant, refusing to investigate claims of sexual assault, not releasing the independent

[04:01:29] review, undermining national merit scholars and letting the bureaucracy of this building grow uncontrollably. The school board is stagnant, but worse yet, the echelons of power in this administrative building have become stagnant, a stagnant bureaucracy. To be clear, I'm not talking about teachers. When you've barely hired more teachers in the last three years by 4%, but the admin FT in this building has grown 30% in the same amount of time. This is stagnation.

[04:02:03] The opposite of stagnation is renewal. We need renewal, which is why I'm running for state Senate to give the people school choice. School choice will renew the people's faith in public education. Thank you very much. Thank you. Again, please refrain from applause during public comment. Michael Clancy to be followed by Christopher Edmonds.

[04:02:27] Good evening. I'm Mike Clancy. I'm a lawyer with 30 years of experience in litigation and investigation reports. I urge you tonight to release a report on the handling of the two sexual assault that occurred back in 2021. It's time to lift the shroud of secrecy and let the light shine on the facts. It's highly questionable whether there's any valid basis for a claim of privilege. As a grand jury report noted, just because someone talks to a lawyer doesn't make the report privileged and doesn't allow LCPS to shield the facts. Assuming there is a valid claim of privilege, you should waive that privilege tonight so that the report can be released

[04:03:05] and provide the transparency the community needs. So I urge you to vote yes on the motion to release the report. It's way past time to share the facts with the community. Let's end the secrecy. Thank you. Thank you. Corey Brunet to be followed by Jeremy Wright.

[04:03:22] I'm sorry, I missed a speaker. Christopher Edmonds to be followed by Corey Brunet. Perfect. Can I take his minute, too? So here on behalf of CL06 as well, and I got an easy one here.

[04:03:37] I'm looking to discuss the rising 6th, 9th, and 11th graders in addition to the others that will be grandfathered. We're hoping to get our 6th, 9th, and 11th graders grandfathered in. Really want to emphasize the comments around stability in our students' lives.

[04:03:55] As we've discussed, many of our juniors and seniors that will be grandfathered unfortunately leave behind the 6th, 7th, and 9th graders. and those rising sophomores already forgoing their lives at Simpson and County our hope is that we can minimize the number of students being impacted and grandfather in those remaining students for CLO six that's a very small number and given the 206 students that are going to be pulled from County as one example the minimal number coming back from two from CLO six would

[04:04:29] certainly not disrupt your plan to relieve counties overpopulation so in In addition, many of those coming back will be graduating. Thank you. Please, grandfather. Corey Brunet, to be followed by Jeremy Wright. Good evening.

[04:04:48] My name is Corey Brunet, and I'm an English learner teacher at Broad Run. I have been telling you about the alarming number of EOI positions open because I think this is the most dire indicator of how educators are doing in LCPS. For someone to quit mid-year, their circumstances must be unbearable, given that most of us have good benefits and are contributing towards retirement.

[04:05:10] These are people who loved the students with whom they worked, but did not feel supported by their administration, were feeling more and more pressure from central office to do more with less time, or maybe a combination of the two. Cafeteria workers are routinely required to work while understaffed and not given overtime.

[04:05:34] Teacher assistants are being given responsibilities way above their pay grade and expertise. And teachers? Far too many. Unencumbered planning continues to be a dream.

[04:05:55] Collective bargaining is what we need and deserve.

[04:06:02] Today, our five positions open.

[04:07:00] Loudoun County will never outperform its educators. Never. - Thank you. Jeremy Wright, to be followed by Karen LaBelle.

[04:07:16] - I feel like the school board needs some reminders of the recommendations made by the special grand jury report. You were given a checklist for how to better serve this community, but those items still haven't been fully addressed. Number five on that list states, the elected members of the LCSB should limit the degree to which legitimate matters and information of public concern are shielded from the public under the cloak of attorney-client privilege.

[04:07:40] About a month ago, I made a public records request for the release of the independent report conducted by Blankenship and Keith, which was paid for by taxpayers, conducted by lawyers that are also paid by taxpayers and who represent public servants that were elected by citizens of Loudoun County. Attorney-client privilege was cited as the reason for withholding this report.

[04:08:00] The special grand jury is still active, Yet this board continues to defy their recommendations. Mr. Sorokin and Mr. Morse talk a pretty good game in front of the microphones and cameras, but the calls for transparency and cooperation with the community continue to go unheeded.

[04:08:17] What will it take for you to wake up and do your jobs? Thank you. Karen LaBelle to be followed by Heather Binkley.

[04:08:39] The Encyclopedia Britannica defines collective bargaining as a process of negotiation between workers and employers to establish conditions of employment. It may cover wages, hiring practices, layoffs, promotions, job functions, working conditions, hours and benefits.

[04:09:00] You, the school board representatives, are the management side of the equation. And the school administration and personnel are the workers. Currently, we use mediation and a system of checks and balances, a system where both sides monitor each other.

[04:09:17] Collective bargaining is a coerced system attributed to socialists. As management, you are responsible to the taxpayers, citizens, businesses, and, yes, parents of this county. Your decisions should reflect their interests.

[04:09:33] Although you and the school administration currently enjoy a cordial relationship, as evidenced by the $1.4 million you voluntarily added to their budget, think carefully. Thank you. Vote no. Jessica Smith, where am I?

[04:09:51] Heather Binkley, to be followed by Jessica Smith. Good evening. I'm Heather Binkley, teacher, parent, and LEA vice president. Time and time again, decisions are made without meaningful input from educational staff.

[04:10:11] It's important to remember that teachers and other educators in school buildings know students far more personally than decision makers and central admin and the school board do. We see them every day. We talk to their parents. We coordinate with intervention teams to provide personalized and targeted instruction.

[04:10:29] While it may seem that educators and parents don't always see eye to eye on every issue, we are all fighting for the interests of our children and students. You can be sure that by passing a collective bargaining resolution and giving frontline educators a voice in policy decisions, you are making a decision that benefits students and the community as a whole.

[04:10:50] When educators raise our voices, it is to promote our students' needs. More than ever, we need to rebuild community trust and confidence in our schools. Let us use our voices to help you do exactly that. Thank you.

[04:11:05] Jessica Smith to be followed by Andrea Weiskopf. Last time, Sorokin said that most of what was in the report they learned from the grand jury. Okay, so you admit you all knew that and still kept Ziegler and gave him a raise.

[04:11:26] Then why not just release the report? Here's a theory: You're afraid that things were said to Blankenship and Keith under the the comfy confines of attorney-client privilege that don't match up with what was said to the grand jury. And that would be a big problem. So do what you got to do, but if you don't vote to release the full report, not a pre-baked executive summary, here's some friendly advice. Don't run

[04:12:05] for re-election because we will make you wear that albatross for the next nine months. Thank you. And Andrea Weiskopf is our final in-person speaker tonight. To our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students, I see you and you belong here.

[04:12:35] During the budget adoption, equity initiatives were attacked through an amendment ambush and a willful misreading of Dr. King. When Dr. King spoke of a nation in which his children would be judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character, he spoke of a dream.

[04:12:59] He spoke of a day not here. He spoke of a one day. That day has not yet arrived. So until the day that justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream, the fight for equity must advance.

[04:13:19] Black Lives Matter. Thank you. We'll now move to our virtual speakers, beginning with Catrice Nolan. Can you hear me?

[04:13:46] Yes, go ahead. All right. On February 5th, 2019, eight parents, community members, and supporters stood before the LCPS school board to advocate for the establishment of the equity department within LCPS. They discussed the issues of systemic racism and the lack of oversight for programs that were supposed to advance academic excellence for students who were historically marginalized.

[04:14:10] Their concerns were heard, and as a result, at-large school board member Beth Hook presented a motion to allocate $200,000 to the LCPS budget to create a position in LCPS dedicated to equity. The motion passed 8-1.

[04:14:26] I want to thank those parents and community members who helped make history happen that day in LCPS. Those speakers were Katrice Solon, Shafilia Parker, Karis Mahadavi, Linda Deans, Robin Burke, Stephen Burke, Bridget Turner, and Tonya Bledsoe.

[04:14:42] Black history is American history. Thank you. Cindy Rodney Smith. Black history is American history. Today I'm here to highlight a few of the contributions of African American females to the U.S. history.

[04:15:02] Among the prominent figures are Dr. Shirley Jackson, who worked to lead innovations along with developments in touch-tone phones, portable fax machines, and fiber-octave cables. Alice H. Parker, designed a natural gas fuel, new and improved heating furnace.

[04:15:19] Her design helped give birth to the thermostat. Marie Van Bitten Brown and her husband, Albert, filed a patent for household closed-circuit television security. Valerie Thomas, physicist, inventor, and NASA data analyst, invented the technology which went on to become the premise for more advanced TV screens and modern 3D technology.

[04:15:43] She patented the illusion transmitter. Dr. Patricia Batt invented a device that drastically improved the process for moving cataracts, which can cause impaired vision and blindness. Thank you. Ruth Kiefer.

[04:16:02] Hello. I teach in the Elementary Distance Learning Program, and I'm speaking tonight to ask you to reconsider its placement into the budget for next year. Our program has been a well-kept secret in the county when it should be a celebrated success story.

[04:16:18] Many do not know that we exist, what we are, or what we offer. Let me enlighten you. Our K-5 program offers students a full-length school day with classes that are equitable to in-person learning. Any student with NLCPS is welcome. Our elementary students actively engage in their core classes, as well as art, music, PE, and school counseling.

[04:16:40] We provide ELL and special ed services. Our students work in groups, but also get a lot of individualized attention, as well as time to socialize. We offer after-school clubs for foreign language, drama, art, learning games, and more. Students may also participate in activities at their home-based work-and-mortar school.

[04:16:59] This program should remain an equitable choice for students in all grades. please don't turn us away. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Julie Bolthouse.

[04:17:23] I'm not sure. I'm not sure if this is an audio problem on our end or the speaker just went out.

[04:17:48] And I'm opposed to the adjustment to the Catoxin school district. This is going to cause my daughter to no longer be able to go to Girl Scouts because there is no Girl Scout troop there. It causes my son with an IEP to have to re-situate himself.

[04:18:04] It's a very stressful situation, and I wish you would reconsider putting Monroe Manor in this adjustment. Thank you. Thank you. Rob Cowan is our final virtual speaker today. Good evening, board members.

[04:18:20] I'm providing comment on the 14.05 Action Item 2024 Fall Open MS-14. We are parents of a class of 28th, 7th grader, and a class of 30th, 5th grader. Under recommendation one, the nontraditional school model, our fifth grader will be forced to attend five schools within six years.

[04:18:40] Brambleton, MS-14, Brambleton, Indy, and High School 14. Change every year, change in administration, campus, teachers, social circles, clubs, and sports. That's potentially an insurmountable stress for an 11 through 16-year-old.

[04:18:56] We commend Board Chair Strotkin for recommending a compromise, the alternate nontraditional recommendation. While our fifth grader would still be subjected to school change, it does allow more academic stability and opportunity to develop deeper social connections.

[04:19:13] This household strongly believes that the alternate non-traditional school model solves the issues before the board. Thank you. Thank you. That will conclude public comment for this evening. We'll now move to item 1301 on the agenda, the acting superintendent's report.

[04:19:31] Dr. Smith. Good evening, board members. Tonight, I bring you good news from around the division as well as our operational update. Give me just one second while we get the slide up.

[04:19:59] All right, we'll go to the slide three, please, Mr. Smith. More than 340 LCPS family members, staff, and community members attended the fifth annual Mental Health and Wellness Conference on January 28th at Light Ridge High School.

[04:20:23] This year's conference focused on wellness. 46 presenters, all of whom were specialists in the field of mental health support, shared tips and strategies to promote healthy and balanced lifestyles. More than 65 community partners in LCPS departments hosted information tables at the resource fair.

[04:20:40] In addition to all the information offered, the conference was a welcoming and engaging event for all. Participants were greeted by Light Ridge student volunteers and music from the Light Ridge Jazz Band filled the hallways. LCPS nutrition services offered healthy, fruit-flavored smoothies and fruit-infused water.

[04:20:56] Student leaders from Broad Run, Rockridge, and Stonebridge High School sold treats with proceeds supporting student activities at their schools. And Hall of Fame football legends Ken Harvey and Charles Mann shared personal stories in their approaches to maintaining wellness.

[04:21:14] A post-event survey of participants gave the conference very high marks. The Year of the Educators series continues. This month, a congratulation goes out to Michael Shankman, a social and global studies teacher at Briar Woods High School, for being selected as the February Year of the Educator winner.

[04:21:33] Michael received a gift certificate to four tickets to the Washington Nationals game at his choice, a $250 gift card to Costco. Started in September 2022, You're the Educator is a joint LCPS and Loudoun Education Foundation initiative that surprises the randomly selected school staff members to thank them for all they do in LCPS for our students and community.

[04:21:54] Mr. Shankman, thank you. We appreciate all that you do. Lynn Rutter, an English teacher, equity lead, and collaborative learning team leader at Light Ridge High School, received an Impact Award from the Virginia Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development. This award, which is presented annually to Virginia educators, recognizes teachers who make a positive impact on colleagues and or students.

[04:22:17] As her principal, Dr. Ryan Hitchman stated, Lynn not only shares her voice, but allows students to share their experiences and goals. She truly empowers and encourages students to make meaningful contributions to the world. Congratulations to Ms. Rutter. It was an honor to share in her recognition along with State Board of Education member and former Virginia Secretary of Education Ann Holt.

[04:22:36] Two LCPS crossing guards, Stephen Rollins of Seldon's Landing Elementary and Dina Perry of Belmont Station Elementary, were named Crossing Guard of the Year by the Virginia Department of Transportation. These two crossing guards were among the six statewide winners.

[04:22:53] 150 crossing guards were nominated by their communities. Here's what parents said about the two crossing guards. About Stephen, Stephen is a kind, respectful, and loving. He makes an effort to learn the names of both kids and parents, and he never fails to greet families with a warm smile.

[04:23:09] About Dina, students learn a lot about safety from Dina's example. In addition to keeping everyone safe, Dina learns everyone's names and is able to brighten anyone's day. Congratulations to these two winners and thanks to all crossing guards for keeping our community safe.

[04:23:27] 11 LCPS schools were named among the 178 schools statewide that were recognized by the Virginia High School League for making the 2022 Fall Sportsmanship Honor Roll. The 11 schools are Briarwoods, Freedom, Heritage, Independence, John Champ, Light Ridge, Loudoun Valley, Potomac Falls, Stonebridge, Tuscarora, and Woodgrove.

[04:23:49] These teams were recognized for their fair treatment of others and sportsmanlike behavior during the 2022-23 fall sports season. In total, LCPS 17 high schools have seven fall sports programs with a total of 221 teams and 4,284 fall athletes.

[04:24:05] Well done to all these student-athletes, their families, and coaches. Cigna has selected LCPS as a recipient of their gold-level Healthy Workforce designation for demonstrating a strong commitment to improving the health and well-being of employees through the Wellness Works program.

[04:24:23] The Cigna Healthy Workforce designation evaluates organizations based on the core components of their well-being program, including leadership and culture, program foundations, program execution, whole person health, and utilization of Cigna resources. Organizations recognized with this designation set the standard of excellence for a whole health organization.

[04:24:44] LCPS was the only Cigna customer in the Mid-Atlantic region to be awarded this level and only one of four nationwide designees. This is a true testament to LCPS as an employer of choice, and I heartily congratulate HRTD and our Wellness and Benefits team.

[04:25:00] Now I'd like to move on to a few operational updates for the board and community. Last week, LCPS families and staff received a survey to offer input that will help LCPS and the school board create school calendars for the upcoming school years, meaning 2024-25 and beyond.

[04:25:18] The calendar survey deadline is February 22nd, and everyone received a unique link. Please help us by filling out the survey to offer your feedback. Once the survey closes, LCPS Department of Human Resources and Talent Development will compile the information, which will help to inform the task of creating the student calendars for future years.

[04:25:37] I'm pleased to share a new resource tonight, Ask the Superintendent. As I continue to look for ways to engage with the community, you'll see a newly created way to reach out. With the simple click of a button, you can submit a question or comment. Inquiries will be reviewed and appropriate action, response, or follow-up will be provided.

[04:25:55] Simply visit the Acting Superintendent's webpage and ask the superintendent. On Monday, February 6th, we sent our very first family newsletter, the LCPS letter, out to our families and community. This letter was viewed 98,000 times in the first 24 hours.

[04:26:13] 410 users spent more than 10 minutes reviewing the content. The LCPS letter is a twice-monthly newsletter to LCPS families and staff designed to streamline news, notices, and information aligning with the communication goals in the strategic plan. It features student and teacher success stories, vital program information, quick calendar updates, and easy-to-access information families need to know.

[04:26:37] We've already received several positive responses, including the testimonials that you see here. Look for newsletters in the weeks between the school board meetings. I hope that this step will help families have easier access to the information they need to help our students succeed. The community will be invited to meet with me and their school board representative in a listening session at schools across the county.

[04:26:57] We want to hear ways to support students' academic and mental health needs and feedback on community communications. As I've stated, two of my top priorities are to provide stability and support for schools, offices, and the community, and to rebuild trust and relationships with all stakeholder groups. These listening sessions will help capture the community's feedback and thoughts on important issues and support to inform decision-making throughout the division.

[04:27:21] I'm acutely aware of the reports of fentanyl and opioid crisis affecting young people. We wanted to provide an update on how we treat this subject in our schools and the resources and support available. During our health classes, students in grades 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 learn about the dangers of drug and opioid use.

[04:27:40] In addition to learning about the dangers of drug use, students in health class also learn to identify positive alternatives to risk-taking behavior, learn strategies to resist peer pressure, and manage stress. LCPS student assistance specialists, who have expertise in mental health and substance abuse fields, provide substance abuse prevention education presentations to all students in 6th, 8th, and 10th grade.

[04:28:03] They provide individual and group support to students, referral services, coordination with providers, and consultation with parents and staff. They also provide parent, community, and staff educational presentations. Naloxone is a medication designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdose.

[04:28:23] LCPS has this, known as Narcan nasal spray, available at every secondary school in the division. This means all of our high school and middle schools. And personnel in each school are trained to administer this treatment. All school resource officers for the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office and Leesburg Police Department carried as well.

[04:28:41] LCPS is expanding the number of trained staff with upcoming trainees for directors of school counseling, athletic directors, and administrators at all levels. Finally, 30 prevention alliance of Loudoun student leaders from Dominion, Parkview, Heritage, and Loudoun County have the following accomplishments.

[04:28:57] They provided drug deactivation bags and lock boxes to community pharmacies to provide awareness around locking medications or proper disposal to keep prescription medications out of wrong hands. They assisted staff with PAL tables at drug take-back days with local police departments in Percival and Leesburg.

[04:29:15] They created a mural to promote mental health wellness entitled Be Kind to Your Mind. This was hung in one of the community after-school programs that serves multiple youth. They also assisted with PAL tabling events such as Recovery Fest and PAL Wellness Festival.

[04:29:32] LCPS is also hosting opioid and fentanyl parent awareness events at five locations. The goal of these information sessions is to alert LCPS community about the trends we are seeding in the broader community and to raise awareness about this very dangerous drug. The first awareness session was held on Saturday at Parkview.

[04:29:50] More than 50 parents attended this session. Loudoun County Sheriff's Office shared information about the production and distribution of fentanyl. Rod Williams, CEO and founder of the Williams Center for Recovery and Wellness, an LCPS community partner, outlined the services and provided support for their organization.

[04:30:08] Prevention Alliance of Loudoun, another LCPS partner, shared information about how parents can remain informed about drug use trends and responses. Four additional sessions will be held across the county in February and March. Each of these sessions will be joined by LCPS partners in the Leesburg Police Department or Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.

[04:30:25] We are working with our law enforcement partners to present to students as well our middle and high school staff also have our access to Narcan the Opioid overdose treatment and have training on how to administer it. That concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you, dr. Smith with that we'll begin on our action items starting with 1401 on Grand jury report recommendation 5. Mr. Beatty

[04:30:56] I move I move the Loudoun County School Board vote to waive attorney-client privilege to release the internal report completed by Blankenship and Keith with any necessary redactions to protect the confidentiality of minors. Sir, second. Seconded by Ms. Polifko. Mr. Beatty, would you like to speak to your motion? Thank you, Chair. As we're going through the budget process, there's a bunch of graphics in there, and one of them is about the relationship between the citizens of Loudoun

[04:31:32] County and the school board and staff, and really our power as the school board comes from the citizens of Loudoun County. And our budget books, you know, they show that. It's been there all four we've done the budget so levin county citizens are in charge of this board we're in charge of the superintendent and the superintendent runs the schools now we commissioned this study and i really truly believe that we need this report to our superiors you know it's the same way that we fired the superintendent for his performance we're due a performance review by the people and i believe that the report will rebuild the trust needed to continue throughout the rest of

[04:32:10] this term and also to help my colleagues to hope to be re-elected or move on to other positions Really, the only way forward is through, and if we keep trying to delay, the wounds caused by the assaults in our schools will continue to fester. Again, this isn't about settling scores.

[04:32:25] This is about rebuilding trust. Please, my colleagues, release the report. Additional comments. Ms. Polifko. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, it's patently obvious that I have next to no prior experience with the law firm of Blankenship and Keith, as I misspelled their name in my motion for this evening.

[04:32:44] It's I-N-G as opposed to E-N. But I think my inexperience is a good thing Conversely, my experience is in advocating for children and families And given the choice between advocating for children and families Or advocating for the system I will always choose children and families This is about justice, integrity, and service You can't have justice without truth And it's not your version of the truth And it's not my version of the truth

[04:33:22] There is one truth. It is the truth. I will always choose truth. It may be uncomfortable and it may lead to unfavorable consequences, but in the end, the truth will always produce what is good. And when we confront things with truth and courage, then what happens as a result will be good. And it may not be good in the immediate sense. We might not feel that in the immediate sense, but what unfolds in the end will ultimately be what is good. In December, I publicly wrote,

[04:33:58] you can't choose, you can't do what's right, you can do what's right for kids or you can do what's right for the system, but you can't choose both in this instance. This is a binary decision. There are many decisions we make as board members that are non-binary and that actually affect both staff and students and parents as stakeholders, such as if we were to think about introducing a new curriculum, or if we were to talk about a disciplinary policy. But this is a situation

[04:34:34] that is strictly about choosing children or choosing the system. What are we here for as school board members if it's not for children? We wouldn't even have kids in this school system if it weren't for the parents and the taxpayers who are funding this $1.7 billion budget.

[04:34:56] To continue to bury the truth in what occurred throughout the horrific sexual assaults in 2021 does not demonstrate justice, integrity, or service. It exudes self-preservation. We have a duty to serve constituents with integrity.

[04:35:16] And the only way to see that through is to unapologetically and courageously embrace sharing the truth and to release this report with any necessary redactions to protect minor confidentiality. Thank you.

[04:35:31] Thank you. Additional comments, Ms. Okedekbe. I think there's a microphone on in the room.

[04:35:49] I think you're okay now. Okay, thank you. In November of 2021, the former superintendent announced that there would be an independent investigation to review the response to the two sexual assaults.

[04:36:05] At the time, as a community member, I thought that we would hear about the results of the investigation, since the letter specifically mentioned keeping the public up to date about the steps we make and the progress we make. As a candidate, I shared during the televised interview that I thought we should release the report, while also acknowledging that we had to ensure that we didn't compromise the privacy of the students.

[04:36:30] Last December, prior to gaining access to the report, I reiterated my belief that the report should be shared. Since then, and after a detailed review of the report, I've come to the conclusion that we should not release it. Ultimately, to be fully transparent, the entire report would need to be released.

[04:36:50] It is clear to me, after having read the report in detail, that the report was not written with the intent to be shared. As you may be aware, we are obligated to comply with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. This federal law requires that we not only keep students' personal information, such as names and birth dates, but also information about their educational rights.

[04:37:16] In order to comply with this federal law and to protect the identity of the minors involved in those incidents, a significant portion of the report would need to be redacted, so much that I believe the heavily redacted report would be met with skepticism and questions about what wasn't being shared.

[04:37:35] Some community members have called for an executive summary of the report, and I don't think a summary report addresses the desire for full transparency, and similar to a redacted report, I believe it results in more questions about what was left out rather than addressing the question about what's happening. All of that said, the facts of the case are largely in line with the fact of sharing of injury. I will be voting not to release the report. This was not

[04:38:10] an easy decision to make, and I am still very consistent. I do believe that transparency is important, and yet in order to protect the identities of minors, I'm sure we are contributing to prolonging the trauma of sickness, I will not report the motion to release the report because in the end, the way that we would release the report, I don't think it answers what we need to do. My desire to release the report previously was based on the fact that

[04:38:47] by releasing the report, we would rebuild trust and move forward, and I don't think we would Thank you. Additional comments? Ms. Corbo.

[04:39:08] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When I took the oath of office as your Loudoun County at Large School Board member, I promised to faithfully and impartially carry out the duties and commit upon me. As a Commonwealth elected official representing all residents of Loudoun County, I recognize that residents have entrusted me with overseeing the educational development of the children and youth in this community.

[04:39:35] The Loudoun County School Board Code of Conduct, which I have looked at thoroughly during this process, states that the board's first and greatest concern is to act in the best interest of each and every one of the young people in Loudoun County. Additionally, the same Code of Conduct requires that school board members take initiative in helping the people of this community have the facts about their schools.

[04:39:59] In December, as we all know, a grand jury report commissioned by the State Attorney General on behalf of the Commonwealth was made public. This report included many recommendations, eight of them, for LCPS and the school board to take into consideration.

[04:40:17] Two of the recommendations speak directly to the need to increase transparency, improve communication, limit the use of attorney-client privilege as a shield. Some of this I ran on.

[04:40:33] I personally feel it is incumbent upon me as an official and all of us of the Commonwealth to honestly take these recommendations into consideration as we carry out the responsibilities of our office. On March of 2021, when LCPS originally hired the firm of Blankenship and Tease to conduct an independent review of the factors surrounding the two alleged sexual assaults, which occurred on LCPS campuses, it was my understanding that the final report would be made public.

[04:41:06] So taking all of these points in consideration and after weighing in legal advice, reflecting on my duties as an elected official of the Commonwealth, and most importantly listening to the requests of the residents of Loudoun County, I feel that it is ethical and the responsible decision for us to vote in favor of releasing this report with redacted information.

[04:41:36] Thank you. Thank you. I will remind the audience that the rules of decorum apply to the entire meeting, not just during public. Sir, another gesture like that, and I'm going to ask you to leave the meeting. Please maintain decorum. Thank you.

[04:41:52] Additional comments? Ms. Reaser. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to start with thanking Ms. Ogadegbe and reminding everyone that Ms. Ogadegbe is actually impartial.

[04:42:09] She's new to the board. She was not a part of the report or the grand jury investigation. Additionally, I think it's important to consider how much we can actually rely on a report that was produced under the oversight of a superintendent that we've terminated. Accordingly, I expect that tonight's vote will be one that puts the best interests of the students in the schools before politics, regardless of how each of us votes.

[04:42:35] And my ask of my colleagues is that we continue a unified and collective effort to look at what has happened from top down and bottom up, share those facts publicly, and continue to take actions as necessary. Thank you. Additional comments?

[04:42:56] Under the best of circumstances, waiving attorney-client privilege is fraught with pitfalls, which is why it is done exceedingly rarely. Being open and transparent is incredibly important, but so is the rights of our students and staff to be able to communicate with legal counsel without it being made public.

[04:43:18] That is such an important principle that it's one of the cornerstones of the American legal system. Releasing the report would cause a subject matter waiver of every communication anyone in LCPS has had with their legal counsel broadly related to these incidents over the last year and a half.

[04:43:36] if I could disentangle the release of the report from that, I would, but we cannot. I've examined all sides of this issue along with the legal advice that the board has received, and I will not be supporting this motion. Additional discussion? Seeing none, we'll place the matter to a vote. All those in favor of the motion, please raise your hands and say aye. All those opposed, please raise your hands and say nay. Nay. That motion will fail 3-6 with Reeser, Sheridan,

[04:44:15] Morse, Mehedevi, Ogadegbi, and Sorotkin, opposed. At this time, order in the boardroom, please. At this time, we're going to take a brief recess.

[04:44:30] Board members, please be back in your seats at 9:00 PM.

[04:44:33] Thank you.

[05:00:30] All right, the board is coming out of recess and we're gonna pick up our action items with 1402 formation of a select audit committee. Is there a motion, Mr. Mehedevi? - Thank you, Chair.

[05:00:45] I move that the Loudoun County School Board does hereby create a select audit committee to help the division manage risk, investigate allegations of fraud, or misuse of resources, improve or develop efficient and effective business processes, identify and communicate best practices, and ensure conformity with law, policies, and regulation.

[05:01:07] I will second the motion. Mr. Mahedeevy, would you like to speak to your motion? I'll speak briefly. As we as a collective board, I think the last budget cycle put this initiative out to create the office of Auditor General.

[05:01:24] And again, the main sort of purpose was that the Auditor General Office would be a body independent of the division that can continue to provide ongoing review of policies, of best practices or investigate allegations or manage risk, and so I think the board directed that, and I think we currently have the office and the staff in place.

[05:02:00] This, the select committee would sort of help, and again, the charter is in the board docs. I should have referred the charter. I'll come back to that. sort of kind of sets up the guidelines sets up the directions of how the board would like this this this office to operate and having a select committee will help us provide ongoing feedback independent again independent feedback out of the division and continue to strengthen our division and continue to make it improve the overall overall school district.

[05:02:40] So, and again, my motion was I want to refer to the Sorotkin revision versus the regular one. I don't know if there was no reference to that, but my motion, I guess I'd like to refer a Sorotkin version. Without objection, the motion will be amended to reference the Sorotkin revision version of the charter.

[05:03:03] I'll briefly speak to that. So when we had discussed the creation of a select audit committee in our work session, The board consensus was that it would be a select committee for this calendar year, and then towards the end of the year, we would reevaluate whether it should become a standing committee, whether it should have its portfolio added to another standing committee, or we might want it to remain as a select or ad hoc committee for a longer period of time.

[05:03:30] So I had just modified the language that you can see on line 60 through 63 of the Sorotkin revision edition just to be a little more explicit as far as the timeline for that but that's that's the only change that i made to my version additional comments seeing none all those in favor of the motion to create the select audit committee please raise your hands and say aye aye those opposed that

[05:04:08] motion will pass 8-1 with polifco opposed board members if you are interested in serving as one the three board members on the select audit committee for this year please email me and let me know and once i have sufficient board member interest i will announce the composition of that committee with that we'll move to 1403 from the department of support services for the abbreviated elementary school attendance zone change process before before i'll make the motion on this one but

[05:04:47] Before I do, Mr. Lewis or Ms. Tate, anything to add to this item? No, sir. We're happy to take any questions you may have. Thank you. I move that the Loudoun County School Board adopt staff recommended attendance zone changes, including the assignment of Kinkora, Kinkora Village, Planning Zones EL31.1 and EL31.2 to Stuart W. Weller Elementary School, the assignment of Planning Zones CL24 to Francis hazel reed elementary school and the assignment of the cattail run development to balls bluff

[05:05:22] elementary school smarts mill middle school and tuscarora high school the adopted changes will take effect in fall 2023 with the start of the 2023-24 academic year further as allowed by policy 8160 students entering grade 5 in the 2023-24 academic year will be allowed to voluntarily remain at their current school of assignment in order to provide educational continuity for their final year of elementary school lcps bus transportation will not be provided for any

[05:05:57] students seeking this school exception is there a second seconded by mr mehedovie any discussion i just maybe i misheard you but i thought you said el 31 1 and 31 2 and i just want to make sure that on the record it says 36 1 and 36 2 and i could have misheard you i just want to be sure If I said 31, I misspoke.

[05:06:23] I meant to say EL 36.1 and EL 36.2. Any further discussion? Ms. Corbo. Thank you.

[05:06:38] I just have a general question. Are we moving all of the attendance areas that have been moved to middle school and high school, have we aligned their elementary schools as well so that it's a progression?

[05:07:01] We are doing that with this recommendation for the Kinkora EL 36.1 and EL 36.2, as well as CL 24. Yes, ma'am. So that doesn't include CL 06?

[05:07:20] CL 06 has been assigned to Smarts Mill Middle School and Tuscarora High School. They presently attend Kenneth Culbert Elementary. CL 05, which is the Beacon Hill area north of Route 7 and Route 9, They also attend Kenneth Culbert and they also attend Smartsville Middle School and Tuscarora High School.

[05:07:43] So we are putting them with more of their classmates or putting is a bad word, I apologize, assigning them with their elementary classmates to matriculate to the same secondary school.

[05:08:01] - Thank you. - Mr. Beatty. - Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to amend the motion by adding the following. Further, students who live in planning zone CL06 entering grades 10 and 11 in the 2023-2024 academic year be allowed to voluntarily remain at their current school of assignment in order to provide educational continuity for their final years of high school lcbs press transportation will not be provided for any student seeking this school exception may i ask if this would not be more appropriately placed with the information

[05:08:38] item that's later on the agenda yeah this is this is specifically for elementary school so I think this motion would be out of order I don't think we can consider that as part of I asked about this last time I said would it be appropriate to put it onto this and staff so you can call it out of order I hear that responsibility but I asked and it was it's fine I mean I'm just I did you know I believe I asked if it was appropriate and staff said it would be appropriate again it's a school board so we can do what we want but okay mr. Lewis yes sir I think if we just

[05:09:16] clarify mr. Beatty we have another item on the board that's talking about the grandfathering of students for grades 12 and then grades 8 I think what this tape was saying is more appropriate for that item later in the agenda than this one which is the elementary school I can understand that but again this was an information out last time I asked we can delay it another two weeks for these poor families but that's okay and it doesn't have a second so it can die well first first of all is there anyone is what is there anyone who's willing to second the motion I will second the motion all right thank you miss Palifco

[05:09:55] Mr. Falcone, could I get a ruling as to whether a change for high school zoning could be considered as part of an elementary school attendance zone change process? So, and so let me just ponder that for a moment.

[05:10:20] I think that, I don't think there's a reason why I couldn't. So, I'm just, I'm speaking off the cuff there. might need to take some time just to ponder that further and I'm sorry I can't give you an answer right away but I might I might need a few minutes you said there you I couldn't hear if you said could or couldn't I don't think there's a reason why you could not okay and so I I could I'm happy to research that just run that to ground but I might need a few minutes on that okay in the

[05:10:52] meantime mr. Beatty would you like to speak to your motion this was a point of contention or just a debate when we went over the attendant zone changes around Loudoun County High School. I didn't agree with the changes to CL06 and I think this is just one way to accommodate those families who have a strong desire to stay at Loudoun County High School, are willing to provide transportation and would like continuity for their students, especially during this critical time in their child's development.

[05:11:28] Additional discussion? Mr. Mahedby. Thank you, Chair. So I I think, I mean, I, again, the motion has been made, the amendment has been, I think you made an amendment, and it's been seconded. But I was looking forward to 1511.

[05:11:45] That's the information item that's in front of the board in terms of grandfathering the CL06 to their current schools. And I was looking forward to supporting that when the item comes as an action item. So this is kind of a, this, I think this, we have spoken about the elementary attendance zone.

[05:12:08] So we are doing a -- again, so I want to keep that, you know, from my point of view, I support grandfathering in because, again, that's what I fought for other -- my own thing, so I support that.

[05:12:23] So I don't want to just go ahead and circumvent what we're trying to do and let go through the process. It's not like the children today -- I know some parents have talked about, you know, doing they're going through their class assignment for next next next year etc and I it's going to be finalized over the for the period of few weeks so I think we could go through the process and next next school board meeting as we come through we can we can support that and and make it happen without having to kind of jump to the gun here as much as you know mr. Falcone have said

[05:13:00] that we could perhaps do it but I think they're two different things to be honest with you we could support this and we can support that as well without having to kind of jumble them together so that's why it's gonna be very difficult for me to support your amendment because we have an item and I've you know support the item of 1511 but I think we just don't want to go through and circumvent the process tonight thank you and then mr. Morris thank you chair Sirupkin I'm

[05:13:33] I'm supportive of this, but I had hoped to have a conversation about also including current 6th graders and up, so people, students who are already in their currently assigned middle school so that they would not be impacted either.

[05:13:56] So I know a motion has already been made, but I was hoping that we could have that discussion because there have been emails with families. One of the people who came to speak tonight as well mentioned the middle school as well.

[05:14:18] So I don't know if I would support this, but I also want to have that conversation about sixth graders and us also having the opportunity to bring them to them, not put them through a process of having to apply to a specialist exception.

[05:14:35] So can there be a discussion on the logistics for being able to consider that? Mr. Morse? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I agree with Mr. Mehedivi.

[05:14:52] I think that I will support it when it comes up. I think it belongs on the information item because this is an abbreviated elementary school attendance zone change. It's very, very specific. So I think it sounds like we have a lot of support on the board already to give the community the feeling that, you know, your proposal would, know let's talk about it here and in 20 minutes and see what it because if everyone supports it we could put it on consent so but I would prefer to do it that way thank you miss Rieser I I agree with with mr. Morris I also will

[05:15:27] support it but I think it's not properly part of this item it would have to either come up as new business or as a suspension of the rules otherwise any topic could be added as a motion I mean it's just it's not this it's not proper and I'd be happy to support suspending the rules if you wanted to do that because of the misunderstanding that you had from staff but I think that it's important that we keep the process correct regardless of the

[05:15:59] misunderstanding additional discussion mr. baby oh sorry miss polka mr. chair I remember mr. Beatty bringing this up a few you I remember you sitting on the days and bringing this up and advocating for CL06 and wanting that to be, and wanting that to come back and for us to be able to have discussion around that. So if I'm not mistaken, I believe that's where your frustration came into play, that you had brought this up to the board before

[05:16:34] and you expected that it was going to come back so that we could take action on it. And I guess that's where I'm perceiving this. And I do remember you mentioning it. I remember you advocating for it and my second statement or slash question would be can we not include this in both portions for this evening can we not include this in the in the action item that we're considering right now and also in 15.11 I don't it wouldn't be proper to do it twice there's no

[05:17:13] reason to either it it it's gonna pass or it's gonna fail as an amendment here but that doesn't I mean, it couldn't be brought up as part of the other grandfathering that's being considered as an information item and then next meeting is an action item.

[05:17:29] - Additional, Mr. Mahedvi. - Well, actually, I'm gonna go back to Mr. Falcone. I saw him with his hand up. - Thank you, Mr. Sirac, and I appreciate the time. So according to Robert's rules, in order for an amendment to be in order, it has to be germane.

[05:17:46] In order for it to be germane, it has to in some way involve the question that's raised by the motion to which it applies. And so my view is that since this does apply to attendance zone changes, it is germane to the subject. It does in some way involve the same subject, but it is also true that there's another item on the agenda which is more germane, but I don't see anything in Robert's Rules which would prohibit it from being added to the item that's at hand now.

[05:18:20] Additional discussion, Mr. Mejedevi and then Mr. Beatty. Mr. Mejedevi, then Ms. Sheridan, and then back to Mr. Beatty. In the interest of time, Mr. Beatty.

[05:18:39] So I will withdraw this motion, and we can bring it back up for the information. Okay. Thank you. The motion has been withdrawn without objection. We're now, no, I'm sorry, we're back to the base motion. Is there any further discussion on the base motion? Seeing none, we'll place the motion, the base motion to a vote.

[05:19:02] All those in favor, please raise your hands and say aye. aye that motion will pass unanimously we are now on 1404 from the Department of Support Services school name review mr. Lewis any updates or information prior to a motion only that at one point this evening we had a couple of our committee members in the audience and I don't think they're still here so we're just going to have them recognized for being on the committee and serving on the

[05:19:36] committee other than that we don't have any other thing to add so the floor is open if a board member would like to make a motion related to this topic for the school name review mr. Morris thank you so a little confused about what mr.

[05:20:05] Lewis was speaking about I think we were talking about the the naming or potentially renaming is that 1404 yes sir I apologize I jumped items on you sorry about that I've been there I understand that's fine I just want to make sure I'm making the right motion for the right item on the agenda so one I move that the Loudoun County School Board retain the name Mercer Middle School and direct LCPS to create an exhibit, preferably multi-sensory, to be

[05:20:41] prominently and permanently displayed in Mercer's main hallway, highlighting the historical facts that underscore all facets and complexities of the school's namesake. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Beatty. Mr. Morse, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, thank you. The discussion that we're having is is on renaming the schools within LCPS and in the light of of the current current examination as to whether it was named inappropriately for

[05:21:14] an individual that would not be appropriate for you know for us to honor so through extensive research and background and we took some information from the History Matters organization.

[05:21:32] We reached out and we actually had a town hall with about 25 to 30 participants, all different races, parents, students, teachers, and so we received some community response there. We received some community response via email, and I did additional research through the JSTOR in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography to take a look at everything I could find out about Mr. Mercer.

[05:22:01] So what I discovered was that by today's standards, yeah, I would say that, you know, there was certainly a hint of racism in his life, in what he did. And so what I would want to do is I would want to take a look at that in the scope of everything that he accomplished.

[05:22:20] And was that the primary motivation and is that sufficient grounds to completely change out the Mercer name and start this process? And my understanding is that tonight is the decision point where we would say we want to move forward with a naming committee or we're not going to move forward with a naming committee.

[05:22:39] So we had a great discussion at the town hall on how best to understand the lenses by which we view Mr. Mercer today and the way we viewed him 20 years ago when Mercer was first built versus the way he was seen back in the 1800s.

[05:23:04] A lot of the discussion was that he was very common. And one of the statements in the Virginia History Magazine of History and Biography was that he was very common among the non-elite in his beliefs. Now, you know, there's some discussion about how he wanted to send all the blacks back to Africa.

[05:23:29] He was going to force them all out. And the organization to which he was attributed had a motion that they would procure land and that they would allow those that were interested to return back to Africa or wherever that property was.

[05:23:48] Kind of, it's certainly not something that we would support today. It's quite outrageous. But then, you know, digging into his history, his history was he was the first individual to push for public education in America for the poor, for the middle class, and for the rich.

[05:24:10] Nobody else had brought that forward, and it was his effort that got that started in the state of Virginia. And he fought against Thomas Jefferson, who wanted to invest all the money in the university. imagine that, but he was interested in trying to provide primary school for citizens regardless of whether they could afford it or not. And that is a huge milestone for public education.

[05:24:36] So I don't think we can just erase the past. I don't think we can just say it didn't happen and that he was a perfect human being, he was flawless. We look back at a lot of our leaders in history with a different lens and we see their faults and flaws. The folks at the town hall said that they wanted to be able to dig into that and to have the students understand this discussion that we're having tonight, that we had the night at the town hall, because that was far more valuable for the students to understand than it was to completely wipe out and change the name and pretend

[05:25:11] like it never happened. So for that reason, I proposed that LCPS create an exhibit, a permanent exhibit in the main hallway, so that every time a student goes or any visitor goes into that school, they will understand the legacy the good and the bad and we talk about capturing history this is what we're talking about we're talking about capturing the good and the bad so that all of lcps residents can understand the discussion that we're having tonight so that's why i hope that this uh i hope this amendment or this motion is something that other board members would support

[05:25:50] and then we can continue to do our evaluation as we go through each of the other schools that are on the list and again weighing each of them individually each of the individuals or the battles battlefields or the farms or all the other locations that were schools were named after we should look at each one of those and determine how best to proceed and I honestly think based on all the comments that I've received and the feedback from the town hall that this would be appropriate thank you mr. Mahedovee and then miss Rieser thank you chair I like to make a

[05:26:24] substitute motion um i move to postpone this matter until september 26 2023 is there a second second seconded by miss reaser so this wouldn't be a substitute motion it's a subsid it's a subsidiary motion but uh would you like to speak to your motion mr madamee uh thank you chair so i think there's um there's definitely i mean there's the the the committee did a lot of work in coming back in sort of being providing recommendations there was town halls I know mr. Morris you and mrs. Rockin attended I know I and mr. Beatty

[05:27:01] attended and and and miss October attended so that definitely there was a lot of feedback in that however I think we have a number of items in front of us from now until the end of the school year and so my hope is that we can address coming back into the next school year versus I mean the biggest one we have is also the superintendent search that's going on we still have a plan of action that was developed in it to address many of the concerns from the grand jury investigation so I like to keep a focus and the staff focus on the

[05:27:37] things that are really critical important versus us debating and and going through this again this is important subject I don't want to sound like it's not but I think it can wait till we at least work on some of the priority items and come back and then hopefully have the discussion on it so that's that's why I made the motion tonight. Further discussion on the motion to postpone? Ms. Okadugbe. Thank you um I I would support postponing this

[05:28:13] topic as well I I I would appreciate your thoughts on that and your rationale I do also just want to say, and then obviously this is postponed, but I did want to share that, you know, from a personal standpoint in our family, the traditions associated with naming our children reflect of a name, and names represent history, and often they bestow blessings. In the fall of

[05:28:48] 21, the full board unanimously approved moving forward to review the consideration for naming schools. And at that time, you know, that was the decision to move forward. I do think that acknowledging our full history and the names in schools and the context of what that history is is important. And in Loudoun County and in Virginia as a whole, we have a long history of segregation that was in direct application of federal law. Through the massive resistance,

[05:29:23] Virginia means separate schools after the ground versus the court's education decision, which outlads separation. And in Leesburg, the town where I live, public schools and building with cement includes to avoid renaming schools, doesn't erase history. It allows us as a community to consider what we want to be known for and try to move past forward together as we collect our shared schools.

[05:29:53] I do support postponing the discussion. Further discussion, Ms. Sheridan and then Ms. Reeser. So I will support the motion to postpone the decision.

[05:30:14] But I had a procedural question that I'm hoping staff can answer. But that's all right. So if a committee were to be formed to rename, that committee could come back and still support Mercer as the name of a school. And I assume that part of this whole procedure and process that the committee would go through would be to do that deep deep dive into the history of this name this individual and then come back with the recommendation that is more representative the school and while I appreciate those who attended the town hall what I remember hearing when you first talked about it was that perhaps there wasn't good weather that night and

[05:30:51] it wasn't that well attempt one of them but I don't even think 50 people is really that representative of that's that school in the community and Latin county as a whole so I guess I would like to see even if we postpone which I don't have an objection to postponing that that we make sure that we do that the committee that makes a recommendation back to the board does go through that process of the deep dive into the history of the names regardless of what school it is that we're talking about so yes ma'am the committee could come back

[05:31:26] with the same name to keep the name and it's also we had that conversation in policy when we added the section on the renaming of schools to make sure that that possibility was there and then we also have a reference in there that the board is not bound by the committee naming committee so the board could do something different than what the committee recommends so all those options are on the table and you do have those that ability to maintain the name if you go through the process miss Rieser then mr. Morrison thank you mr.

[05:31:57] chair just building on what my colleagues said I agree with actually everything everyone has said I'm going to support the motion to to postpone I think mr. Morris I think your idea is a great one in fact I think we should consider that regardless of whether the school names are changed or kept because there is a history to be learned from even if the school's name is changed so I would propose that the committees consider that as part of their review what when if and when we appoint committees and like miss Sheridan said I will ultimately support creating a committee so that we can have that deeper

[05:32:33] dive thank you okay sir Morrison thank you so and I will I will support the delay I just wanted to point out to board members that the whole idea behind having the town hall and getting the feedback prior to starting the engine of getting all the community you know getting 50 people moving in one direction and then the board saying nah we're okay with that or you know not not needing to move forward with that that would be a huge insult to any committee and I would never want to appoint someone to a committee and then not end

[05:33:08] up taking their recommendations so my thought was that if we can make a determination before we start grinding away at a committee because in theory we're gonna have at least 10 committees reviewing and so this is going to be a very burdensome process but I will I will support the the delay so that that will give us more time to reach out to the community as well so I know my Sheridan thinks that 50 number will get there so I'll support the substitute motion as well additional questions or discussion mine is I'm just curious why

[05:33:47] why the September 26th date as opposed to the earlier September meeting or why why that date I just want to do it after we come back from school and you know I didn't want to put right away in as we because we have some items coming back from school as well so I think it just kind of it's arbitrary data there's no science behind it to be honest with you but I think it's just coming back and fall and addressing that would be seemed like more appropriate than than trying to you know trying to mix it in the in the summer or late fall or in the winter okay thank you and could I also get clarification on that your motion to

[05:34:26] postpone was intended to apply both to the renaming of Mercer as well as francis hazel reid or was it only for mercer it was for the both okay thank you any additional discussion mr lewis point of clarification could we just confirm that that also would be the second half of that motion talked about starting the next section of names and starting the town hall meetings for that and we wouldn't we just want to make sure we're postponing the entire uh process mr mehedovie is that your intent that was my intent is just that we'd have the entire

[05:35:00] discussion in september 26th and just confirming it was september 26 2023 yes sir that's okay not september of 2026 just want to make sure i got it yeah additional discussion seeing none all those in favor of the motion to postpone discussion of all of this until september 26 2023 please raise your hand say aye aye that motion will that motion will pass unanimously with that we are on 1405

[05:35:39] from the department of support services fall 2024 opening of new middle school ms14 before i make a motion mr lewis or dr ellis any informational updates or anything to add to this item no sir okay i'm going to make a motion for from the what's listed in board docs as the alternative recommendation serotkin i move that the louden county school board endorsed the non-traditional school model with independence high school and brambleton middle school beginning fall 2024

[05:36:19] the 2024-25 academic year in conjunction with the opening of ms14 for four school terms 2024-25 2025 26 2026 27 and 20 27 28 academic years the aforementioned three schools will serve the secondary school students residing in the current independence high school brambleton middle school attendance zone until the opening of a new dullest north area high school hs 14 in fall

[05:36:53] 2028 for the 2024-25 academic year only for the current independence high school brambleton middle school attendance zone independence high school will serve currently zoned students in grades 9 through 12. brambleton middle school will serve students in grades 7 and 8 and ms 14 will serve students in grade 6 only for the remaining three schools terms 2025 26 2026 27 and 2027 28 academic years independence high school will serve students in grades 9 through 12 but with a ninth grade

[05:37:31] annex located at brambleton middle school in addition to serving as the site for the grade 9 annex brambleton middle school will serve students in grade 8. ms 14 will serve students in grades six and seven with the opening of hs 14 in fall 2028 secondary school attendance zones will be modified hs 14 will serve students in grades 9 through 12 ms 14 will begin serving students in grades 6 through 8 in fall 2028 independence high school will continue serving students in grades 9 through 12 brambleton middle school will return to serving students in grades

[05:38:09] So this is a slight modification of the plan that staff presented as an information item.

[05:38:25] The only difference is for current fifth grade students, which, according to the original staff plan, would have switched schools or school modalities every single year between fifth grade and 10th grade and this solves the problem for them by maintaining them at Brambleton Middle School for the grade six through eight and the plan for every other grade would be unchanged which I think is okay because there's no other grade that was bounced around in the plan the way

[05:39:04] that that one grade was so I think that the staff plan was a good start I want to thank dr. Ellis and mr. Lewis and their teams for working with me on a revised plan and for also contacting the principals of all of the affected schools to make sure that they didn't have any concerns so at this point I'll open it up to to board members for discussion mr. Morse thank you mr.

[05:39:29] chair just to confirm from staff what would be the most overcrowded scenario for any of the schools during that entire period looks like Independence high school will be ninety four point ninety seven percent utilization in the

[05:40:05] FY 24 the first year school year 24/25 okay and that's the highest yes sir okay thank you additional discussion mr. Mahedvy thank you chair so I didn't with the staff to understand your sort of amendment motion and I from what I learned is I think it makes a lot of sense and I think the staff also supports it so for that I'll be supporting as well thank you additional questions or discussion seeing none all those in favor of adopting alternative

[05:40:43] recommendations Sorotkin as listed in board docs please raise your hands and say aye aye that motion will pass unanimously thank you board members so that will conclude our action items we're going to move on to information items just a note to either board members or the public who may not have been here earlier items 1503 through 1507 were heard earlier this evening during our work session so we'll start with 1501 and 1502 and then we'll be jumping to 1508 after that so we will start with 1501 from the legislative and

[05:41:23] policy committee revision of policy 2430 school board agenda ms reiser thank you mr chair policy 2430 school board agenda came to the legislative and policy committee in december of 2023 2022 and february of 2023 it was also part of our school board's december 13 work session and i will turn it over to mr slevin to speak more on the policy thank you ms reiser this policy was posted for community in Advisory Committee feedback from December 21st to January 15th and

[05:42:02] the additional feedback you can can be found in board knocks the committee voted 3-0 to recommend staff revisions to policy 2430 school board agenda as amended by the committee and is being forwarded to the full school board for review as mr. Reza mentioned the policy was revised to align with practices cited in the 12th edition of Roberts rule of orders another applicable applicable revisions, ask Mr. Falcone if he'd have any additional comments to add.

[05:42:36] - Thank you, Mr. Slevin. So the impetus to amend policy 2430 was to recommend that based on their special grand jury recommendation that the school board not include the non-renewal of a teacher contract on the consent agenda. And the reason for that recommendation was there was a concern that such items were not being sufficiently reviewed by the board an appropriate level of scrutiny and and so and just as a prefatory matter it's my understanding that that's already been addressed as a as an operational

[05:43:07] issue but in terms of ratifying that by the board the requirement that is included in in section G I think addresses this certainly the spirit of the recommendation which which section G addresses the consent agenda and it discusses that it requires the superintendent to especially notify the board of not just non-renewal of a contract but in fact of any adverse employment action so that those items are are specifically called to the

[05:43:46] attention of the board it does not it doesn't necessarily take away the ability of the board to place such an item on consent if the board consents in full um and they're not there's nothing to debate and they don't want to debate then then they they should be able to have that option to to place an item on there you should have the option to be able to place the item on consent um but of course it also clarifies that any uh board member could remove an item from consent uh at their request so i i i i do think that section g would address

[05:44:21] uh the concerns of the special grand jury uh moreover uh in reviewing this policy there are a couple other areas that that needed to be addressed in my view specifically with respect to how a matter moves from committee through the board through the board process and then there's often uh discussion by board members of suspending the rules but we'd never actually made that formalized that process in a policy and so the sections

[05:44:56] E&F were added to policy 2430 to address those concerns board members any questions or discussion regarding the changes to policy 2430 mr. Mahademi thank you chair so I guess I'll direct the question question to the committee chair or Mr. Falcon EU. So the first one I have, I think it says, I think we're trying to codify the consent agenda, I think, because I think it seems like we didn't have any direct sort of policy

[05:45:33] items to how we were doing the consent agenda. Is that how I understand it? This is a section G, I mean, because it looks like it's a new paragraph, not that we're updating a paragraph or anything of that sort. That's correct. So in the paragraph, I think in line number 52, it says school board, let me go back it talks about consensus it's a 53 that borders reach a consensus so you're talking about the consensus during the information item what at what point are we talking about getting the consensus thank you mr. Mahedeby that's

[05:46:13] a that's a great question so generally speaking that would be through the process of going through the information item however there are circumstances where an item gets placed on the agenda for on an emergency basis and so if the chair determines that there is the consent of the board it can sometimes be moved directly to the consent agenda of course any board member can can have a removed from the consent agenda as well but but but that language is drafted so

[05:46:48] that it doesn't uh hamstring uh the the school board from from uh going that route we also have other items that by custom have always been placed on the consent agenda like routine contract approvals that come out of the finance and operations committee or uh nominations for individuals to certain of our advisory committees so those are really just standing rules that if any board member objected to or wanted to remove them from consent they could always ask to but otherwise it's generally up to the chair's discretion to put the meeting

[05:47:25] together and determine that an item is non-controversial or should be placed on consent so i i agree with you and that's what i was going going with my question because again those are items that get placed on it those are not based on consents i mean they're just on the consent agenda any board member can pull it out so how do you because the way the line reads here it seems like there's always a need for a consensus it's not a separate line it's it's a comma i'm not trying to get into the the weeds of it but i just that's for me to reach that it's like almost other items also need to have consensus but that's not the case and that's not we want to create that sort of hamper

[05:48:04] for the business of the division because as mrs sir i can talk about many items can go on the consent agenda because you know that's how uh like hiring personal actions or other decisions can automatically go so i don't know maybe it would be good to clear the language to make that really distinction about what that is versus putting in a policy that it has to be everything has to be consensus because the way i read right now it seems like you got to reach a consensus and go through that additional discussion or mr falconi i i think that's a good point i i just wanted to

[05:48:44] offer the the the purpose of the amendment was was really to memorialize what we're the practice that's already in place, it just hasn't been written down. And so what I would offer is when the board chair determines that there is a consensus, that's not a binding vote, that's everyone kind of generally agreeing.

[05:49:11] And so if it's the practice of the board to typically place contract renewals on the consent agenda um i don't think that that's foreclosed by by this policy uh if that's the if it's the understanding of the chair that those items are typically consented to and of course if if it became the practice of a board member to say i don't consent to those ever then we could no longer do that and they would have to go through the information item and action item process well i agree with i mean the language and the paragraph i just think that the language needs to be just clear in regards to what we just talked about how the practice is and that's all that's what's my

[05:49:51] point thank you additional comments seeing none i'm going to place this on action not consent uh at our next board meeting just just as a practice i'm not going to place policy changes that res that originated from special grand jury investigations on consent so i'm going to put this as action with that we'll move to 1502 also from the legislative and policy committee adoption of 3210 office of the ombuds miss rieser thank you mr chair policy 3210 office of

[05:50:27] the ombuds was created to support the development of the office of ombuds which offers constituent services within Loudoun County Public Schools this was proposed for I'm sorry it was posted for community and advisory committee feedback between December and January it came to the LMP committee in December and again in February and I'm going to pass it to mr. Slevin who will introduce

[05:51:00] and and turn it over to our new ombuds thank you thank you miss Rieser I'm happy to be joined tonight by miss Kerry Williams our ombuds who will be talking about the process that we went through in the development of this policy thank Thank you, Mr. Sullivan, and thank you for having me here tonight.

[05:51:21] Policy 3210 establishes guidelines for the responsibilities related to the Office of the Ombuds and has been drafted in accordance with the International Ombuds Association Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics. This policy outlines the scope and authority of the Office of the Ombuds and establishes the four core values under which the Ombuds operates.

[05:51:41] The four core values are independence, informality, confidentiality, and impartiality. We did receive valuable feedback from both SEAC and MSAC. We value their input and we were able to make changes to clarify some of their concerns. Section A details that the Office of the Ombuds operates independently within LCPS and the ombuds shall hold no other position within or beyond LCPS that might otherwise compromise their independence.

[05:52:09] Section D1 states that the use of the services of the ombuds is entirely voluntary and may not be a required component of any formal process. D-1A states that the ombuds is a confidential resource and will hold all communications with those seeking assistance in strict confidence and take all reasonable steps to preserve the confidentiality of those constituents to the extent permissible by law, unless the ombuds believes there is a serious risk of harm to self or others or the visitor gives express permission for the ombuds to share information beyond their conversation.

[05:52:41] Regarding suspected child abuse and Title IX sexual harassment, the ombuds shall refer individuals to the appropriate individual or location where notice can be made. And in the event that an individual does not immediately contact Child Protective Services or the Title IX coordinator, the ombuds shall do so as a mandated reporter.

[05:52:59] Section D3 states that the ombuds shall also remain neutral, impartial, and unaligned. All members of the community served by the ombuds may voluntarily seek their services and shall be treated with dignity and respect. The ombuds shall consider the legitimate concerns and interests of all individuals and groups affected by the matter under consideration.

[05:53:19] Section F states that reporting complaints to the ombuds does not constitute notice of claims to LCPS. And Section G states that the office of the ombuds shall not accept any formal complaints nor conduct investigations. Finally, Section I states that the ombuds shall compile data documenting the nature and number of concerns handled by the office and shall make a report and recommendations to the school board and the division superintendent on an annual basis and may provide supplementary reports if requested by the school board to include the activities conducted by the office of the ombuds, identify trends in problematic areas and inform recommendations for systemic and organizational change, improvement or resolution

[05:53:58] within LCPS, its schools and departments. Beyond the annual report, the ombuds will elevate systemic concerns and trends to the appropriate offices within the division as they arise. At this point, we'll take any questions or feedback on the policy.

[05:54:16] Thank you. Board members, any questions or discussion regarding this new policy? Mr. Mehelleby. Thank you, Chair. So, I mean, this very detailed, thank you, I guess, is a pretty detailed policy and describes quite in detail the role of ombudsman.

[05:54:36] So, I guess in one way, I appreciate that. But at the same time, when we're going to detail, the concern comes about is that have we captured everything in there? And so I'll just make a comment on that. But I think more importantly, the question I come back to is the Section C, and it starts with line 49.

[05:54:56] I don't think we have anywhere there, but this is, now I believe that the ombudsman or the role of ombudsman is the Office of Ombuds, it's hired by the superintendent, is that correct?

[05:55:16] So the position, yes, it sits within the superintendent's office and reports to the chief of staff. Chief of Staff, but this policy is changing that recommendation to move from Chief of Staff to Division Superintendent, that's how I see that?

[05:55:33] If through the evaluative process, if the recommendation would be for my approval, that it would come through the Division Superintendent as typical processes within HRTD. If the Chief of Staff were to make that recommendation, it would be to the Superintendent, who in turn would make it to the Board.

[05:55:53] and this is a new policy so that that was just a change that was made in committee because it's the the school board accepts recommendations from the division superintendent for removal from all staff so it was just to be compliant with that and consistent with the way it would be for any other employee so so I'm coming back to the question so I don't think we have anywhere and I'm just kind of I'd like to get to understand saying well it says the ombudsman the ombuds shall not be subject to retaliation by any person who may be subject to a complaint and may only be removed from the office upon the recommendation so I don't think I'm just I'm not sure we have anything like that

[05:56:32] in any policy so it the very opening line itself because again as we establish that the ombuds reports to the superintendent and and there's always a recommendation I mean that's applies to not only this particular role but to any other positions too I mean that would be the process would go through and I I mean, we should not tolerate any retaliations to any employee whatsoever.

[05:56:57] So I kind of find that, again, just to share with the board, just I don't know what that means and putting in the policy, how that relates to, but just find that. And I'll go through more in detail and perhaps in the question as we come back to take a vote on it next time around.

[05:57:20] Additional discussion? Seeing none, is there interest in placing this on consent for next meeting? There is not, so we will place it on action. With that, we will move to 1508 from the HRTD committee, policy 7530, duty to report child or student abuse and neglect.

[05:57:54] Ms. Ogadegbe. Thank you, Chair Sorok, and just a moment, let me jump ahead here. Okay, so this policy came through the HRTD committee, And the changes that you'll see in the red line version in four docs did a couple of things.

[05:58:27] The first was included language to cover students who are 18 years old or over. Some of our high school students are no longer under the age of 18, and so there are some specifics for those older students that needed to be incorporated, specifically what agency reporting is applicable to. The other changes were to add contact information for where those

[05:59:05] reports would need to and some clarification around who is responsible for the reporting and also includes a new section on the red line version starting on line 67A4, which outlines the importance of making sure that the employee who is the subject of an investigation

[05:59:43] has the responsibility for notifying the superintendent or a designee about any investigation. There is also down on page 4, new section E, related to the consequences for noncompliance in reporting procedures, indicating that any employee who fails to comply with the reporting requirements for child abuse and neglect may be subjected to disciplinary action up to

[06:00:23] an information and that is essentially the edits that are in this policy. I don't know if Ms. Boland is still there. Do you have anything to add to the policy? I think you summed it up fairly nicely.

[06:00:57] Board members, any questions or discussion regarding the changes to policy 7530? Mr. Morse. Yes, just one thought on line 57, where we talk about any employee who is the subject of a CPS or APS investigation must notify the superintendent or designee of the investigation.

[06:01:17] I think we should put a time frame on that. I would recommend 24 hours or something similar. So I will, you're talking about on line 67 through 71? Paragraph?

[06:01:33] Four. A4. So, I will just want to cross-reference it with policy 7542 because this is language pulled out of that policy. Okay. So, would we want to or need to adjust language in both of those to be consistent? Yes.

[06:01:48] Okay. I would still recommend it. I think it's important that they be accountable within very short term of any investigation. Okay. And there are already reporting requirement limitations in regards to, it says to report, I think it says as soon as practicable, within 24 hours or as soon as practicable. But I'll look to find it.

[06:02:22] Okay, it does say in paragraph B about halfway through, shall occur as soon as possible, but within one workday of becoming aware. But that is someone reporting it up the chain. I don't think that's the initial report. Okay. Thank you.

[06:02:39] Mr. Madhavi. Thank you, Chair. So, Ms. Bowen, I guess since we are asking to get, you know, whether it's quarterly, biannual, or annual reports about, you know, we see probably actions coming through.

[06:02:57] But I guess I'm asking the board members here, I mean, would you value a, you know, just a report coming back to us in a much more comprehensive way? I know we get one off, one individual incidence that happened and we get notifications and then, but just a quarterly or yearly sort of report on these kind of incidents and so on and so forth and quantifiable just to see what the trend of the division looks like when it comes to some of these actions.

[06:03:31] I don't know if there's any interest from the board to get a report for this particular policy just to see what's sort of happening in the division. I'm just curious to get some board member thoughts on that. Additional discussion?

[06:03:57] Seeing none. Oh, Ms. Ogadekbe. Thanks. I was just trying to say that I would be supportive of that. I think there are a number of areas where it would be helpful to have periodic summary reports of a variety of topics.

[06:04:16] I think this would be one where that would be helpful. Ms. Ogden. Mr. Mahadevi. Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Ms. Ogden. Perhaps you and I can work on bringing some amendment language to this particular policy for the next action item then.

[06:04:33] Thank you so much. Additional discussion? Ms. Boland. Thank you so much, Mr. Sorokin. So I will look into how that potentially can be done, but keep in mind, we don't own the process and CPS requires us to call in notifications. Now we do at LCPS require that it get put into a system, but that process is owned by student services. So before I make any promises,

[06:05:10] I would have to work with Clark Bowers and his team to see what is even possible to pull report to provide thank you miss Bowen so I think that's kind of be kind of goes back to that I think what you just summarize because we don't know I mean again it's not that so if we are making a referral to CPS I mean that's what we want to know like how many referrals we made to CPS what closure we got I mean there was a disciplining actions or something without going into new PII information or any personal information but we like to understand that how many

[06:05:48] referrals we did what the what the actions were just in a quantifiable number and to see how what what's happening so absolutely and I can look into the possibility behind that I will I do want to remind the board that we typically over report to CPS and to APS to ensure that we're we cover our basis so the number of reportings may be high but we need to also be able to see the number

[06:06:26] that they actually pick up and investigate I think that's fair and that is a board member I would like to know I mean how many of them actually accepted or not accepted in a period of the year that's where I was coming back to additional discussion seeing none so we'll place this on action for the next school board meeting board members if it turns out that you're not going to make any amendments then just let me know and if all the amendments fall off we'll place it on consent instead but for now we'll we'll place it on action with that

[06:07:05] we'll move to 1509 from the Department of Support Services school naming committee for new school Dulles South area elementary school ES 32 mr. Lewis thank you mr. Sorokin so tonight we have for you an information I am related to the naming of elementary school 32 and just a quick reminder this is the school that we're building on the same campus as the current Hovater elementary school

[06:07:43] the ES 32 will be built with a k2 configuration for grades kindergarten through second grade hovater will then assume grades 3 through 5 so full disclosures from staff perspective we talked about this in house a good bit and thought maybe it was a the best way to do this was to have the same name because it's going to be on the same campus it's going to have one single boundary and we thought about hovater primary versus hovater elementary school looking at the policy the policy does require the board to create a

[06:08:18] committee we did talk with mr. Falcone about that we do have a couple precedences in the past for Round Hill Asper and Arcola academies of Loudon Douglas we're all done without a naming committee but we are here tonight to initiate the process of starting the naming committee but just wanted to give you that background on what staff has been thinking about for how to manage that campus with the best way with one single boundary so at that point we're happy to take any questions and we are you know this will come back as an action item at

[06:08:52] the February 28th meeting board members any questions on this item mr. Morse so I had the opportunity to stop down there last week or the week before and talk to some of the staff I guess there's a little bit of concern into you know do they have the same PTA organization are they you know there's a lot of questions about the logistics of how the two schools will operate together and we'll work our way through that but I do I I'm always concerned that when you're naming two schools with the same first name that there's there's going to be

[06:09:29] confusion there's absolutely you know even if you say primary on the front of the school there's still going to be confusion so I I do think we need we need to move forward with the the naming committee and see you know if they would support that or if they have another idea so you know I I do support the committee additional discussion mr. baby I agree with mr. Morris although we would be giving a big cool Harry Potter reference additional discussion and I I

[06:10:06] would I would agree as well I think you know hope how that or is a big school one of our biggest elementary schools and even with the new school opening and splitting the population between the two it's still gonna be to have two big schools right next to each other that all that both had a very similar name that's like that's specifically why we didn't go with the recommendation for arcola spring elementary school a couple of years ago because we already had an arcola elementary school down the street so i would be supportive of doing a naming committee for this as well but we'll bring it back for action next time

[06:10:42] additional comments seeing none we will bring this back for action next board meeting and now we'll move to 1510 also from department of support services name recommendation for new middle school ms14 thank you mr sorokan so tonight and this is from earlier comment where we had some of our committee members here and i believe they've they've left but we do have for you tonight the results of this committee work committee's work and mrs tate and her staff that

[06:11:17] managed the the process it was a very engaged committee and they do have a number of recommendations for the board's consideration starting with watson mountain which essentially was the community of watson was a mixed race community that was running along actually very close to the campus of where the ms14 is along watson road which essentially references more of a hill than a mountain but that's where that came from one of the alternate recommendations is and that was the committee's recommendation an alternate recommendation was also Watson Freedman

[06:11:52] which John Watson who was born into slavery in a different County Mecklenburg County he did serve and as a trustee for the Freedman School was also elected to the House of Delegates and was present and voted for ratified the 14th and 15th amendments there was also another recommendation alternate recommendation for William H. Ash. Mr. Ash was also born into slavery in Loudoun County, elected to the House of Delegates. He and his wife were both educators and likely taught at the Leesburg Colored School

[06:12:27] on Union Street in Leesburg. And then the last alternate recommendation we have is for Crossroads Middle School, essentially identifying that the school is located at the crossroads of Evergreen Mills Road, Watson Road, and then, I mean, Red Hill Road, and Ryan Road there.

[06:12:46] So those are the recommendations for the committees. We have provided the information from History Matters on Mr. Watson and Mr. Ash and your attachments. And then we will be bringing this back for action at the February 28th meeting.

[06:13:06] Board members, any questions or discussion on this item? Ms. Ogadegbe. Thank you. I just was curious, which district does the school fall into?

[06:13:26] Presently, Blue Ridge. Additional discussion? Seeing none we will bring this back for action next meeting and name ms 14 that'll take us to 1511 also from support services for current students affected by attendance zone changes policy 8160 survey results for

[06:14:04] Certain rising grade 8 students rising juniors and high school siblings of rising seniors Thank You mr. Sorokin so on December 13th the school board took action to change those secondary attendance zone boundaries which affected harper park heritage simpson county smartsmill tuscarora belmont ridge riverside sterling and parkview and they all become effective in the fall of 2023 in accordance with policy 8160 we surveyed the rising 12th grade students i'm sorry we did not the rising

[06:14:40] 12th grade students they they will stay at their home school we surveyed the rising 11th grade also the siblings of those those students and then also the rising eighth grade students from the middle school level within the item you'll see the numbers of the students that were affected and their families were surveyed and those that chose to remain at their at their school are in the the second columns in each of the charts and you'll see there we've provided the information by grade or by the school level and then the surveys results and and the percentages of students that would come,

[06:15:17] and then how many would those changes there. And I know that this is subject to the conversation we had a few minutes ago, so we're happy to take any questions and try to answer those to the best of our ability. - Board members, discussion on this item, Ms. Polifko.

[06:15:35] - Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to revisit CL06 because I did receive outreach from an LCPS constituent regarding the potential of allowing current freshmen or rising sophomores the ability to remain at LCHS to finish their high school career, given that it would likely be an extremely small number of students.

[06:15:58] And it would align with the idea of providing continuity for students and their families after what we've dealt with over the last few years with COVID. And I wanted to bring that up for discussion as a board right now, since we have that time. Additional discussion, Ms. Ogadugbe.

[06:16:20] Thank you. So as I mentioned earlier, I am supportive of the grandfathering, but would like to stand to include current 6th graders, so the rising 7th graders, and above.

[06:16:42] So essentially anyone who is currently in one assigned middle school or high school in CL06 who would be moved with the rezoning, give them the opportunity to be grandfathered if they chose to.

[06:17:03] The survey results, you know, showed that not every single student is requesting this exemption, which is what we'd expected.

[06:17:16] And I appreciate, Ms. Liffo, your question about the rising sophomores, but I think that we, in response to the inquiries that I've received from families, we should be looking at any student who is currently in middle school or high school, so current 6th graders, rising 7th graders and above, and afford them the opportunity to be grandfathered.

[06:17:46] Additional discussion, Mr. Baby. Thank you. So a question for staff, given the recommendation, this would not affect freshmen at Loudoun County High School, they would still go to Tuscarora, which is based on what's in board docs?

[06:18:02] And then also for 8th graders at one of the middle schools, they would still go to their newly assigned high school? With respect to current 8th graders, they were not surveyed because they weren't covered in policy.

[06:18:17] So you are correct, they would matriculate to their new high school. With respect to current ninth graders, if that individual student had a sibling who was a rising senior, then we have surveyed those. But all other ninth graders, we did not because they're not covered under the policy. You are correct.

[06:18:36] Okay. So in order to potentially allow for eighth graders to go to a non-zone high school, that would be against policy, but the school board could potentially make that change. And then we'd also have to make a decision for freshmen and sophomores to continue at their current high school based on this, right?

[06:18:55] For the current freshmen to remain, you would, yes, sir. But for current sophomores, rising juniors, they were surveyed. And those results are part of this response. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I thought you just said it was sophomores who had an older sibling.

[06:19:11] But it's all sophomores were surveyed? All sophomores. All rising juniors, right. Yes, sir. It is, yes, the interchangeable terms. Yes, sir. Additional discussion, Ms. Ogadekbe?

[06:19:28] Sorry to keep returning to this, but I have a question about how do we, although it's not covered in policy, how can we be responsive to this desire, not just at the high school, but at the middle school level as well?

[06:19:49] What are the options for granting the exception for an expanded grandfathering for rising seventh and above? Well, we believe that outside of special permission, the board has the authority to make that decision.

[06:20:13] I would like if we could get a little bit of clarification. Mrs. Polifco, I thought, was talking specifically about CLO6, but Mrs. Ogadegbe, it wasn't clear that if you were talking about specific to CLO6 or all of the students in the rezoning.

[06:20:34] Okay, thank you. Additional discussion? Mr. Morse. Question for Ms. Ogadegbe. you envision that the sixth graders would be grandfathered through middle school and then grandfathered through their current high school years as well so they'd be basically grandfathered for for six years additional discussion

[06:21:12] seeing none we will bring this back for action next time board members I would ask if you have specific grandfathering plans or anything that you would want to consider please send those to uh miss tate and her team so that they can run enrollment projections and provide those to the board so that we understand what the impact of doing that and how broad it is would be mr lewis yes sir we would like to clarify also um and we're talking about

[06:21:47] as i understand it from mrs okadagby's motion or her thoughts that this we're talking about students that are currently sixth graders but we we will need to be aware of what board's thoughts are of our students that move in and that type of thing moving forward so if we can get as much clarity on what you're asking for it'd be very helpful as we try to put the numbers together with miss polipka thank you mr chair i wanted to follow up and let you know that i will do the same

[06:22:22] thank you with that we'll move to 1512 from the department of student services the national professional social work month proclamation dr. Jones thank you chair Sorotkin good evening board this information item highlights the annual proclamation recognizing March of 2023 as national professional school social work month school social workers contribute directly to the academic success of our students by assisting school staff and families and

[06:22:59] identifying available resources and services to support students experiencing academic social emotional and or behavioral difficulties among the many areas of responsibilities as noted in the information item school social workers provide support and case management to our most vulnerable students and families who need homebound services mckinney vento and foster care services the theme for national school social work month 2023 is social work breaks barriers we celebrate our school social workers as they indeed help remove barriers

[06:23:36] empower our students and support families and communities the proclamation is being presented to recognize the contributions of our school social workers to the one lc to one lcps through their dedicated efforts thank you any questions regarding this proclamation i'm not even going to ask we're just going to place it on action for next board meeting and with that we'll come to our final information item also from the department of student services for social and emotional learning day proclamation dr jones thank you this information item highlights the annual

[06:24:15] proclamation recognizing this year march 10th 2023 as sel day social emotional learning day provides an opportunity for lcps to demonstrate support for implementing systemic strategies that embed SEL in every part of students educational experience and promote equitable outcomes for every child. Social emotional learning improves academic outcomes builds a positive school climate and provides students with the necessary skills to excel in today's society.

[06:24:48] This proclamation offers recognition of this important work and the school board's commitment to social emotional learning approaches as an integral component by empowering students to navigate complex issues such as mental health trauma equity and career and college readiness thank you board members any questions or discussion on this proclamation seeing none we will place this on action for the next board meeting that will bring us to item 16 our closed meeting for

[06:25:23] tonight is there a motion mr mehedvi yes chair i moved to the lounger county school board recess this public meeting and enter into a closed meeting pursuant to 2.2 dash 3712 of the court of virginia for the following discussion of performance of specific public employees as authorized by section 2.2 3711 a1 of court of virginia and second discussion of consideration discussion or consideration of disciplinary or other matters involving the disclosure of information continuing a scholastic record concerning student enrolled in london county

[06:25:57] public schools as authorized by section 2.2-3711 a2 of the court of virginia is there a second i'll second any discussion seeing none all those in favor of the motion to enter closed meeting please raise your hand say aye aye that motion will pass unanimously we are now in closed meeting

[06:26:19] and i believe there will be a motion coming at a closed meeting okay uh good good morning the

[07:50:30] board is coming out of closed session is there a motion mr mahediby uh yes chair uh i move that allow i'm sorry i move that the closed meeting be adjourned and that the lounger county school board reconvene its public meeting and that the minutes of the public meeting reflect that no formal action was taken in the closed meeting i moved that i also moved that the following resolution certifying the closed meeting be adopted and reflected in the minutes of the public meeting resolution 25-22-23 whereas the lounger county school board has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded board and in accordance with the provisions of

[07:51:08] the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and whereas section 2.2-3712 the Court of Virginia required certification by the school board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law now therefore be it resolved the Loudoun County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which the Certification applies and only such public business matters as we're identifying the motion convening to close meeting We're heard discussed or considered by the London County School Board. I'll second. Is there any discussion?

[07:51:44] Seeing none all those in favor of the motion, please raise your hand and say aye Aye that motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Miss Polifco absent for the vote There is a motion required by the closed meeting I move that the Loudoun County School Board adopt the hearing officer's report dated january 23rd 2023 and does hereby dismiss and terminate employee number five zero two one four two three from employment effective immediately is there a second second in by mr mehedvi is there any discussion seeing none all those in favor of the motion please raise your

[07:52:23] hands and say aye aye that motion will pass unanimously of board members present with Miss Polifco absent for the vote. Board members, given the lateness of the hour, without objection, we're gonna skip over item 17, board members' comments and committee reports.

[07:52:42] That will bring us to item 18, new business. Is there any new business tonight? Seeing none, we are adjourned, thank you.

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